A finely wrought Western mystery by a true master of the form.
In Schopen’s latest neo-Western, an ex-lawman finds his life upended by the discovery of a missing plane.
Fats Rangle used to be a deputy sheriff in Pinenut County, but those days are behind him. The former cop now operates Cherry Creek Stables and Excursions with his brother on the family’s ranch in the Nevada desert, which offers such activities as horseback riding, camping, and fishing parties. Fats laments the many changes that have come to his native valley, bringing more development, more people, and a lowering water table that’s causing vegetation to dry up. While riding one evening in the nearby mountains, he comes across the wreckage of a small single-engine plane that went missing two years ago. There are two bodies inside, mummified by the elements, but nothing of obvious value: “More interesting to Fats was the track in the snow…that zigzagged up to the wreckage. Someone had been here, he guessed a month or so ago. He could also guess who. And why.” Fats purposely tramples over the original tracks, and later, when he reports the crash to his former colleague, Sheriff Dale Zahn, he doesn’t mention that someone else had been there. It turns out that Fats’ cousin Strutter Martin has gone missing, and Fats suspects that his disappearance and the tracks outside the plane are related—especially after he learns of a missing briefcase full of cash that should have been on the plane. Fats launches a private investigation into the whereabouts of Strutter and the briefcase, and he soon stumbles upon a much larger scheme involving political corruption, a Las Vegas dancer, and water rights. The stakes of this game are high, and Fats will have to play his hand carefully if he doesn’t want to end up dead.
Over the course of this novel, Schopen shows himself to be a skilled poet of the Western landscape, and readers will find that his prose is as lean and tough as old leather: “The wind soughed. A jay fussed. Near the corral, a young bay mare cropped the sparse mountain foliage. Beside the water tank stood Fats Rangle, squat, still.” The hinterlands between the desert and the city provide a stark stage for this morality tale, and it’s one in which nature, in all its danger and delicacy, is a force that must always be reckoned with. The novel combines clearly recognizable Western elements with those of hardboiled detective fiction, and the laconic, short-tempered Fats exemplifies the antiheroic archetypes of both genres. The protagonist’s search for answers quickly becomes a broader exploration of himself and his history—particularly the series of events that caused him to leave the sheriff’s office for good; the story also encompasses the evolving realities of his beloved, but no longer remote, valley homeland. Is there still a place in the West for men such as Fats? Readers will hope so, as long as there are talents like Schopen to write about them.
A finely wrought Western mystery by a true master of the form.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9781647791186
Page Count: 223
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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