Review: Arizona Dreams

David Mapstone is an unusual protagonist. He used to be a history professor. After he moved to Arizona, he became a county deputy sheriff. Now he's married to a wonderful woman who is also a deputy. Together they go through life having interesting adventures and an occasional married squabble.

In the present adventure, their fourth, I believe, an ex student of Mapstone's, a woman who professes a long-ago crush on David, shows up in his office with a letter apparently written by her dead father. In the letter he confesses to a long ago murder. The information sends Mapstone on a quest into the Arizona desert where....well you'll have to read the book. Suffice to say what he finds there is not exactly what you expect he'll discover.

Meanwhile, as they sometimes say, his wife is encountering a paradox of her own. The ice-pick murder of a nearby relative results in David's wife, Linda Faith, seeing her own sister, Robin, in the gathering crowd. Why she's there and what really happened in these two but connected incidents forms the foundation of this complicated but logical mystery.

The characters are nicely portrayed, the dialogue not only seems honest but it makes sense as well. The sheriff's relationship with Mapstone is at times a bit over the top, but that's a minor cavil.

One of the nice things about Talton's writing is the careful way he gives the reader just about everything needed to solve the mystery early in the book, but you have to be paying attention. Some of the best clues happen in parts of the narrative which we are often told, "everybody skips over." Their loss, I say.

If I have a complaint it's that the back of the ARC I have reveals far too much about the story. Poisoned Pen Press is doing good things in the mystery field and this book is another example.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Carl Brookins - RAM

Book Review: Arizona Dreams