I received this title from NetGalley in consideration of an honest review. 

The seventh in the Alafair Tucker series, “Hell with the lid blown off” can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.  I haven’t read any others in the series and was quite able to enjoy this one on its own.

I found myself thinking of “Little House on the Prairie” the entire time I was reading it.  Set in a similar time period in very rural Oklahoma, this novel features the matriarch/sleuth Alafair Tucker.  Alafair is the mother of ten and still manages to find time to solve the occasional mystery.    This particular novel however really didn’t have much of a whodunit factor, although it was a murder mystery.    It did have a very vivid and well portrayed description of a tornado and how it affected this rural community.   Facing devastation, loss of property and death, the valiant citizens of this small Oklahoma community banded together to overcome adversity.

Along with the Tucker family we meet the lawmen of the community.  The newest member of which has fallen in love with Ruth,  one of the Tucker’s daughters.  We also meet Jubal Beldon, a nefarious scoundrel whom the reader is happy to hear has been murdered…

Anyone who likes to read historical novels, set during a time when ‘neighbor helped neighbor’ and motives were straight-forward, will enjoy this book.

The descriptions were well rendered and the myriad characters likeable.  An easy read, “Hell with the lid blown off” was not a hard to figure out mystery, rather an incidental murder amongst a family’s travail.

The book included some excellent ‘old-time’ recipes from Alafair’s kitchen.