When Rachel Goddard stopped by her friend Joanna McKendricks’s farm for a routine veterinary call, she found Joanna armed with a shotgun and in the midst of a heated argument with the president of their local bank. He was trying to convince Joanna to sell her land to Packard Development, thereby providing him with a large commission from the company.

Packard wanted to build a huge sprawling resort on property around Mason County, Virginia, nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

While the development company offered a large buyout to those who would sell land to them, not everyone wanted to lose their farm or business. A condition that caused a major stumbling block was that everyone concerned had to agree to sell or no one got any money.

Those who refused experienced grave threats from the development company, and their own long time neighbors who needed the money in an area of high unemployment and poverty. While the outspoken Rachel agreed with her friend’s stand, she also had to keep her opinions somewhat at bay as her new husband was the county sheriff.

When shots rang out during one confrontation, Rachel and Joanna rushed to a neighbor’s farm, only to find a gruesome site. An elderly couple who had stanchly refused to sell their land was found brutally murdered on their own property. As a result, rumors and tempers ran rampant threatening to destroy the fabric of the area.

Poisoned Ground, A Rachel Goddard Mystery, is the sixth in the series written by Sandra Parshall. The Agatha Award-winning author lives in the beautiful Northern Virginia area and most likely understands the desire of many people to keep the area pristine as long as possible.

Parshall’s passionate characters drive a fast-paced story line that keeps pages turning with numerous twists and turns. Poisoned Ground is a difficult novel to set down as it takes a poignant look at a people struggling to survive, who are given an opportunity to possess more money than they could ever imagine.

Greed and the desire of the characters to grasp whatever they can any way they can leads to deep seated emotions that threatens to bring out the worse in humanity in a small town.

There is plenty of emotion throughout this book, providing readers the opportunity to consider what they would do under similar circumstances. How would they react if an unbelievable opportunity of a large windfall were to come their way, but one that pitted friend against friend? It is certainly something to think about.

A special thank you goes to Poisoned Pen Press for providing a complimentary copy of Poisoned Ground for our review.

If you are interested in any of Sandra Parshall’s books, they are available at Amazon.com.