The Barnes & Noble Review
For the sixth novel in the nostalgic Sam McCain series (The Day the Music Died, Everybody's Somebody's Fool), author Ed Gorman gives us both a solid mystery and a poignant chronicle of small-town America in a seemingly more innocent age. In the early 1960s, as the Kennedy administration confronts the Cuban Missile Crisis and the country stands poised on the brink of a menacing new era, Iowa lawyer and occasional P.I. Sam McCain is caught in a murder inquiry involving four wealthy pillars of the community -- all of whom have enjoyed the company of a young woman who's turned up dead in the bomb shelter of a gubernatorial candidate. As McCain probes the secrets of the powerful and prominent, he discovers that he's made himself the target for a killer.

McCain's troubles parallel those of the country at large: Just as Black Falls, Iowa, must surrender some of its innocence in the face of America's political changes, so Sam grows older and must accept the fact that many of his childhood dreams will never be fulfilled. Struggling to keep up a brave front, he is also forced to face the possibility that through inaction and bad decisions he may have lost the love of his life.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do offers plenty of action to go along with its homespun front-porch charm. Its irresistible mix of mystery, fast-paced action, and gripping prose is sure to win this popular author a slew of avid new fans. Tom Piccirilli

Genre: Mystery