Serious issues here, but they take a back seat to Harrison’s sharp, bordering-on-absurdist humor.
To the relief of Jules Clement fans, the former sheriff and his beloved Caroline have returned to Blue Deer, Montana, in 1997, following a year of travel, in this first installment of Harrison’s series since Blue Deer Thaw (2000).
Caroline is back working part-time in the Absaroka County sheriff’s department, but Jules has sworn off law enforcement and juggles jobs as an archeologist and private detective. About to build their dream house along the river, they have a 10-month-old baby whose constant physical presence becomes the novel’s symbol of hardy innocence. Domestic calm does not preclude comic, homicidal mayhem, though. A seemingly inconsequential death shows up on the first page, and soon Absaroka County is awash in questionable suicides, fatal accidents, mysterious murders, deadly family feuds, equally deadly land disputes, and random body parts. Responding to a request from his mother, Jules begins investigating the details surrounding the death of his father, Ansel, a popular sheriff gunned down while giving a routine speeding ticket more than 25 years ago. Soon, Jules senses friends are keeping secrets from him. Meanwhile, because Jules and Caroline keep their professional lives separate and don’t always fully communicate—“the mysteries of cohabitation” are a definite theme here—they miss some obvious connections among the myriad plotlines. Aside from Ansel’s killing, these involve ancient gravesites interfering with a proposed right of way, the complicated ownership of a potentially valuable ghost town, the murder of an unpopular retired priest, and a missing acting sheriff. Expect the usual host of darkly colorful local characters, plus some shadowy Russians passing through. Characters and crimes come so fast and furiously that they clog up the first third of the book. Once the novel relaxes, patterns start to emerge. That the villain is obvious midway through doesn’t matter. What’s riveting is the ethical conflict Jules unearths: protecting (or surviving) the people you love versus defending justice.
Serious issues here, but they take a back seat to Harrison’s sharp, bordering-on-absurdist humor.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781640096325
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.
A routine break-in at the home of Sûreté homicide chief Armand Gamache leads slowly but surely to the revelation of a potentially calamitous threat to all Québec.
At first it seems as if nothing at all triggered the burglar alarm at Gamache’s home in Three Pines; it was literally a false alarm. It’s not till he receives a package containing his summer jacket that Gamache realizes someone really did get into his house, choosing to steal exactly this one item and return it with a cryptic note referring to “some malady…water” and “Angelica stems.” Having already refused to meet with Jeanne Caron, chief of staff to Marcus Lauzon, a powerful politician who’s already taken vengeance on Gamache and his family for not expunging his child’s criminal record, Gamache now agrees to meet with Charles Langlois, a marine biologist with ties to Caron who confesses to a leading role in stealing Gamache’s jacket. Their meeting ends inconclusively for Gamache, who’s convinced that Langlois is hiding something weighty, and all too conclusively for Langlois, who’s killed by a hit-and-run driver as he leaves. The news that Langlois had been investigating a water supply near the abbey of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups sends Gamache scurrying off to the abbey, where the plot steadily thickens until he’s led to ask how “an old recipe for Chartreuse” can possibly be connected to “a terrorist plot to poison Québec’s drinking water.” That’s a great question, and answering it will take the second half of this story, which spins ever more intricate connections among leading players that become deeply unsettling.
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250328137
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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