Review by New York Times Review
Of all the beasts on the prowl, none is more unnerving than a disaffected teenage boy with a grudge and a gun. Leaving to others the in-depth psychological analysis of such youthful spree killers, Jeffery Deaver turns his attention in ROADSIDE CROSSES (Simon & Schuster, $26.95) to the social triggers that set them off. Someone on the scenic Monterey Peninsula is putting up highway memorials to victims of violent attacks that have yet to happen, and it falls to Kathryn Dance and her colleagues in the California Bureau of Investigation to solve this morbid mystery. Applying her expertise in kinesic analysis in interviews with local high school students, Dance determines from their body language that they're lying about something. The kids are more forthcoming when they go on The Chilton Report, a blog where everyone is flaming Travis Brigham, the "total fr33k" and "luser" who was driving the car in which two classmates were killed in a recent highway accident. When Travis takes off on his bike, the police are sure they have their killer. Surprisingly, clever Kathryn is a virgin when it comes to the blogosphere, and an attractive computer scientist, Dr. Jonathan Boling, must be imported from academia to initiate her into this arcane world. And a very good job he does of it, too, patiently instructing her in the language and logistics of social networking and the cruel Internet taunts that can unhinge an unstable personality. When it becomes apparent that the cyberbullies howling for Travis's blood are making themselves easy targets for the killer, Dance is reminded of Boling's words: "We give away too much information about ourselves online. Way too much." Once he dissects the journalistic ethics of messianic bloggers like the self-righteous moralizer behind The Chilton Report, Deaver moves on to alternative-reality Web sites like DimensionQuest, the violent role-playing game to which Travis is addicted. When Boling warns Dance that Travis "could be losing the distinction between the synthetic world and the real world," the author is drawing on real-life phenomena like the computer gaming centers and total-immersion pods that are turning players into bots. But the techno-savvy Deaver is too much the master gamesman to scold anyone else for a little excessive play, and in some brilliant plot maneuvers he counters every warning about warrior bloggers and glassy-eyed gamers with well-reasoned arguments in their defense - and real doubts about their proclivity to commit murder. Like his best players, he has one of those puzzle-loving minds you just can't trust. It's the scenery - and the big guy standing in front of the scenery - that keeps us coming back to Craig Johnson's lean and leathery mysteries. All the books in this series are set in Wyoming and feature Walt Longmire, the sheriff of Absaroka County, who's a good man to have on your side if you're a world-class rider jailed for shooting your husband after he burned down the stable with your horses inside. That's what happens in THE DARK HORSE (Viking, $24.95) to Mary Barsad, who refuses to talk about the bloodbath, leaving the sheriff to investigate in his own maverick style. Working undercover, Walt meets some crusty characters in a bar where beer is served only in cans ("Nobody ever got hurt throwing a can, and nobody in this part of the world ever threw a full one") and a Powder River PoundDown Tough-Man Contest is held every Friday night. Walt takes a few punches when he's roped into one of these fights, but that gets him a wild ride on a magnificent horse. And in the end, in one of those surprising grace notes that keep this series from falling into cowboy guff, it's the song of a meadowlark that gives the killer away. The bold narrator and chilling historical setting of A TRACE OF SMOKE (Forge/Tom Doherty, $24.95) can get you past the clunky writing in Rebecca Cantrell's first mystery. Set in Berlin in 1931, the sordid story is narrated by Hannah Vogel, a crime reporter for the Berliner Tageblatt. The crime she's secretly investigating hits close to home: the murder of her kid brother, a cabaret singer who was perhaps too flagrant a homosexual for the city's political climate. "This is no game," his older lover warns her. "There are real consequences for us all." After answering him in the same clichéd dialogue, Hannah ignores his advice and makes an enemy of Ernst Röhm, the brutal head of Hitler's brownshirts. Without much deviation from the woman-in-peril formula, Cantrell puts it in an unusually vivid context, letting Hannah report on the decadence of her world without losing her life - or her mind. With so many exhibitionist forensic experts showing off their extraordinary skills, it's a rare pleasure to sit down to a traditional detective story in which solid police work solves a crime. Inspector Hal Challis is very much in charge of the operations in an excellent Australian series written by Garry Disher. But as BLOOD MOON (Soho, $24) illustrates, it's smoothly coordinated teamwork that brings down the murderer of an agent of the Waterloo land use commission, a caring woman who shared Challis's alarm over the rampant real-estate development of the Mornington Peninsula and the nouveaux riches who demand it. There are no shootouts here. Just the drama of people from very different social classes locked in battle over the schools, the services, the beaches, the views and a way of life that has already gone behind a cloud. 'We give away too much information about ourselves online,' Deaver's heroine learns. 'Way too much.'
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Recent novels in this top-notch series have taken Sheriff Walt Longmire out of his Absaroka County, Wyoming, comfort zone to big-city Philadelphia and to his past in war-torn Vietnam. The Dark Horse treads turf similar to the first and strongest two books in the series but with a twist: Longmire's in the next county over, and he's working undercover. It starts with a transferred prisoner who's been accused of and confessed to killing her husband. But Longmire doesn't believe her and, on little more than a hunch, sets out to prove her wrong. Posing as an insurance claims adjuster (the dead man burned a barn with the horses inside), he checks into a motel that might be the high-plains equivalent of the one in Touch of Evil. Longmire, locally famous, has a hell of a time keeping his cover. From the interesting story frame (past and present slowly converge) to the indelibly inked characters, to the set-piece ending (in snow and lightning on top of a mesa), this is among Johnson's best, with one caveat: Longmire's longtime friend, Henry Standing Bear, a character too big for sidekick status, here feels like a tag-along. Fortunately, Longmire's shoulders are more than broad enough to carry a book.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Johnson's superb fifth contemporary mystery to feature Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire (after 2008's Another Man's Moccasins), Walt has his doubts about Mary Barsad's guilt when she confesses to shooting her husband, Wade, after Wade allegedly burned down their barn with all Mary's horses inside. Even though the crime is out of his jurisdiction in a neighboring county, Walt can't shake the feeling that there's more to Mary's story. Posing as an insurance agent, Walt starts poking around the tiny town of Absalom, whose main attraction are the fights at the local bar. He meets an illegal immigrant bartender with a knack for crime solving, the Barsads' loyal cowhand and some ranchers who may have had their own reasons for wanting Wade dead. Walt digs deep into the dilapidated town's history, unearthing secrets that might be better left buried. Series fans will delight in seeing Walt return to his cowboy roots as he mounts a horse and navigates the sparsely populated state. 8-city author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In his fifth outing (after Another Man's Moccasins), Sheriff Walt Longmire goes undercover to prove that Mary Barsad, confessed murderer, did not kill her husband after he shot her horses and set the barn on fire. Walt finds that there is a lot more going on in Wyoming's remote Powder River area, as he meets a cast of characters with much to hide. Verdict While not as hardboiled as C.J. Box's crime thrillers nor as humorous as J.M. Hayes's "Mad Dog and Englishman" series, Johnson's deft, twisty storytelling immediately grips the reader. His latest has a heart as big as a Wyoming sky. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyo., follows a hunch to free an allegedly self-made widow. Though his jail is housing confessed killer Mary Barsad, Walt Longmire has a feeling the horse-loving lady is innocent. Prescription drugs found in her system have left her with little appetite and even less ability to focus on the here and now. Posing as an insurance adjuster, Walt goes to the Powder River country to sniff around. His welcome is less than warm. On the night of the murder, Wade Barsad's ranch house and barn were destroyed by fire, along with his wife's prize cutting horsesall except for Wahoo Sue, Mary's favorite, whom Barsad claimed to have taken out and shot. The long list of people happy to see Wade dead includes his hired hand Hershel Vanskike, whose hopes of fortune rest in an antique rifle, and just about everybody else in a three-county area. When Walt rents a room in Absalom, only a Guatemalan bartender and her half-Cheyenne son Benjamin are willing to talk to him. Though he tries to keep a low profile, Walt gets pushed into fighting Cliff Cly, king of the local Friday night fights. It turns out that Barsad was in the witness protection program and had a lot more enemies than the locals he'd antagonized. After a trip with Hershel and Benjamin to Twentymile Butte shows Cly in a new light, only a meeting with Wahoo Sue saves Walt from death. Walt's fifth (Another Man's Moccasins, 2008, etc.) is stunningly descriptive and compulsively readable. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
