Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)One of the mainstays of both western and detective fiction is the plot in which the big city detective (or loner on horseback) goes to a small town in the boonies, finds everything upside down and inside out, with the evil forces in charge and the law in tatters. Every Quinn Martin hero of the 60's and 70's has such an experience.
Parker's take on this was the creation of Jesse Stone, the alcoholic, ex-LAPD detective, his marriage broken, his life on the edge of the abyss, who turns bi-coastal and sets up shop in Paradise, MA. Now comes Ken Mercer, with his own twist on a story line that nearly always works like a bandit. Will Magowan has left LA and his job as a narcotics detective for a job as chief of Haydenville, a town in northern California in which every resident seems to be tweaking, scratching, itching and committing mayhem. Looming above them all is a one-shot wonder writer, with a nasty pair of twin boys and a past that includes serious time in stir.
Will figures him for the majordomo of meth, but with the whole town seemingly against him, including the smarmy mayor, the task of convicting him appears to be Sisyphean. Enter Will's wife Laurie, who offers soothing moments in a narrative of nearly unrelieved struggle and pain. Will's other support (a counterpart to Jesse Stone's Suitcase Simpson) is a young man named Thomas, who longs for a nickname and who desperately wants to be of help to his fragile chief. As the challenges increase, Will goes into the woods--that traditional locus of suffering and adventure--to stand up for justice and achieve a decent measure of personal redemption in the process.
This is a very strong narrative, with interesting characters, a fully-realized setting and a piledriver plot. It is an exceptional debut for the author, from whom we should all now expect a Will Magowan series. I certainly look forward to one. Highly recommended.
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