The Fayetteville Series: Book 2
Publication Date: March 1, 2026
Chloe Weaver is the oldest daughter in a conservative Christian family of Fayetteville, Arkansas who lives biblically: long skirts for the women, home-schooling for the children, weekly church attendance and old-fashioned courting rules that lead to marriage.
As she turns thirty and remains unmarried, however, Chloe begins to wonder if she’ll ever have the happy marriage and many kids that she has been led to believe constitutes the perfect life. When her parents allow her to court Barnabas Anderson, Chloe knows she should be ecstatic. Instead, she is uncomfortable with the twelve-year age gap between her and Barnabas. Besides, Barnabas has always been a little… weird.
When Barnabas’ brother visits the Weavers, bringing tales of Barnabas’ previous wife and her untimely death, Chloe realizes how little she knows about Barnabas. As she prepares for a prayer assembly in San Francisco, where Barnabas used to live, Chloe decides to investigate his past and his wife’s death. With the help of Detective Logan Cartwright of the San Francisco Police Department, Chloe steps out of her comfort zone to find the truth- and find hope for her future.
The Abnormal Gumshoe is the sequel to the award-winning novel Two Sisters of Fayetteville.
The Abnormal Gumshoe by Tamar Anolic is the second book in the Fayetteville series set in Alabama, but this time we branch out to San Francisco to solve a crime. Chloe Weaver is the main character and earns the title when she gets the police and medical examiner to reopen a closed case that’s twenty years old and was previously ruled a suicide.
The family’s religious beliefs and strong Christian faith are central to the story throughout. Chloe is being courted by Barnabas, another member of their church, but isn’t getting good vibes. When she and her sister travel to California for a prayer assembly and stay with their oldest brother and his family, she also meets with the police about her concerns regarding the death of Barnabas’ first wife. One thing leads to another, and she’s in the thick of things and fighting her attraction to the detective who had worked the case as a police officer, Logan Cartwright.
Previous storylines are included and updated, which gives continuity to the series. There are twists and turns as clues are gathered, and interviews are held. But will murder really be the verdict after all this time? Their religious standards aren’t fully upheld while she’s in California, since she’s in the company of men without a chaperone as they do their sleuthing. It was nice to see Chloe focused on something other than taking care of her siblings, her chores, and her desire to be married and have a family since she’s already thirty. The story came to a satisfying conclusion but ended abruptly. But there were hints of what might be in the next book.
The Abnormal Gumshoe is a cozy mystery with strong characters and police procedurals, with some romance thrown in.
 
Tamar Anolic writes in a number of genres, from historical fiction to science fiction, YA and MG to adult fiction. Many of her books have won awards. The Abnormal Gumshoe is Tamar‘s first mystery.
