The Six-Week Solution by Paula Darnell

I read this very good historical mystery last week.

About: "Never guessing that their very lives might be in danger, well-to-do women come from all over the country to stay at guest ranches around Reno to establish the six weeks' residency required for a quickie Nevada divorce in 1955.

When a Circle E Ranch guest dies after her Cadillac plunges off Mount Rose Highway, a mountain road between Lake Tahoe and Reno, Washoe County Deputy Sheriff Ben Cameron is assigned to investigate the accident. His inquiries lead him to question everyone at the Circle E, where he meets Mary, an attractive prospective divorcée from New York. Unfortunately, Mary soon has an accident of her own. In the meantime, Ben's case takes a turn as twisty as the Mount Rose Highway, and when Mary suffers a second accident, he figures that someone is out to get her. Unless Ben can discover who's targeting the out-of-towners, some of them won't live long enough to have their day in court."

This book had a different setting from any I have read lately. Set in 1950's Nevada, I learned about a piece of Reno history, I wasn't aware of. The description of life, fashion and etiquette of the '50s was very good. The story was great. We think this story is only about the car accident and the victim who dies in the crash. But there is so much more to the story. Mary can't believe she is a target. Is her husband, soon to be ex- husband trying to kill her? Ben, finds out there may have been other similar "accidents" and his investigation takes him to Los Angeles and many calls to New York to make the connections necessary to solve this case.

So what about this "Six-Week Solution? Is it true?

https://thisisreno.com/2016/02/reno-a-history-of-divorce/

From the above article/link: 

"By 1909, Reno had earned the title of “the nation’s new divorce headquarters.” The generous number of grounds available to divorce-seekers in Nevada in addition to its relatively short residency period—six months, at the time—set it apart. In the decades to follow, an increase in the number of legal grounds and the reduction of the residency period further increased the Reno’s appeal.

Residency Requirement:
In 1931, in an attempt to help secure Nevada’s economic health through the Great Depression, the state legislature dropped the residency requirement to an unheard-of six weeks. In the same session, the state legalized wide-open gambling, ensuring even more entertainment options for divorce-seekers. More than 30,000 divorces were granted in the Washoe County Courthouse during the 1930s.

For some, the residency period for divorce also served as the countdown to a wedding. An advantage of divorcing in Nevada was the ability to immediately walk down the aisle with someone else.

In many cases, divorce-seekers brought their future spouses to Reno to wait out the residency period together, or arranged for them to arrive in town upon its completion. Tales abound of divorce-seekers who received a divorce decree in the morning and tied the knot with someone else that very afternoon, with both proceedings sometimes officiated by the same judge."

Here's a bit about Paula Darnell. She is new to me.

https://www.pauladarnellauthor.com/2018/12/about-author.html

"An instructor at five colleges over the years, Paula Darnell most often taught the dreaded first-year English composition classes, but she's also been happy to teach some fun classes, such as fashion design, sewing, and jewelry making. Paula has a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and a Master's degree in English from the University of Nevada, Reno. 

Like Laurel, the main character in Death by Association, Paula enjoys all kinds of arts and crafts. Some of her memorable projects include making a hat and a cape to wear to Royal Ascot, sewing wedding gowns for both her daughters, exhibiting her textile and mixed-media artwork in juried art shows, and having one of her jewelry projects accepted for inclusion in Leather Jewelry, published by Lark Books. She sells some of her jewelry and hair accessories in her Etsy shop.

Paula's interest in DIY craft projects and fashion led to her writing hundreds of articles for print and online national publications. She is the author of Death by Association, Death by Design, and Death by Proxy, all in her cozy series, the DIY Diva Mysteries. 

She is also the author of The Six-Week Solution, a historical mystery set in Reno, Nevada, in 1955. A former Reno resident, she was inspired by the local history and found the 1950s when Reno was considered the Divorce Capital of the World to be an interesting era in which to set a mystery.
 Paula lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her husband Gary and their 110-pound dog Rocky, whose favorite pastime is lurking in the kitchen, hoping for a handout."

I would like to see a second book with the characters and setting of this book.