Publisher's Weekly
Liberally laced with wry Yankee humor, Langton's eighth Homer Kelly mystery, after The Dante Game , chides the American propensity to glorify the new while destroying the old. Few people in Concord, Mass., seem concerned when residents of Pond View Trailer Park, near Walden Pond and the municipal dump, begin to die. Most of the citizenry is more involved in the conflict over the proposed development of a mall and condominiums near the pond. Retired detective Homer Kelly suspects the deaths may not be accidental, although he knows the projected development doesn't involve Pond View property. Kelly is assisted in his (unofficial) investigation by Ananda Singh, a native of India who has made a pilgrimage to the locale immortalized by Henry David Thoreau. An invasion of Boston homeless people and a local election further divide the townspeople into two camps: those who seek to preserve Concord's historical ambience and those who want it to become urban and chic. Langton's simple, elegant pen-and-ink drawings add to the mood of her leisurely paced, well-crafted puzzler.

Kirkus Reviews
Ominous happenings in Concord, Mass., site of Thoreau's Walden and long the home base of the author's intellectual ex-cop Homer Kelly (National Enemy, etc.). Mega-developer Jefferson Grandison is determined to build a cutesy new town on the edge of the pond. His ardent henchman is Jack Markey, aided in turn by money-mad entrepreneur Mimi Pink, who's already overboutiqued a once-sensible Main Street. The elderly population of Walden Breezes, a trailer camp on desirable land, is being decimated at an alarming rate, despite Homer's pleas to local law enforcement to pay attention. Add to all this the invasion of a tacky little band of homeless from Boston; the emotional turmoil of handsome young Ananda Singh, a Thoreau worshiper from India whose pilgrimage almost costs him his life; and the ongoing conflicts between planning boards and nature lovers. The final upshot is a tidy triumph for the good guys-unrealistic, perhaps, but great good fun for the reader. The author's clever live drawings further enhance a richly textured, unflaggingly entertaining story.