Archive for category Western, Modern

Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult (May 28, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0670020877
ISBN-13: 978-0670020874
$24.95, U.S.
$31.00, Canada

Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis

When Wade Barsad’s burned corpse is found with six .22 slugs in his skull, few people around Absalom in Campbell County, Wyoming are surprised and none sad. Barsad and his money had created trouble for almost everyone around. Few have any doubts about his killer, though – his wife, Mary, is found in a stupor, rifle in hand, and confesses to the killing, four times. The story goes ’round that Wade’s locking her horses in the barn and burning them to death gave her a final push over the edge.

Brought to nearby Absaroka County for safekeeping in the custody of Sheriff Walt Longmire, Mary, though dazed and uncommunicative, doesn’t seem guilty to Longmire. Though all the reports back up the airtight case against Mrs. Barsad, Walt decides to take a look for himself, with the tacit blessing of the Campbell County sheriff. So begins the latest in the Walt Longmire saga, one which has him and Dog in an unusual, and not so successful, undercover role.

All the good things about the Walt Longmire series – Johnson’s careful attention to character, the you-are-here presentation of the Wyoming setting – are present in this book, though the role of some is diminished a bit. Henry Standing Bear, for example, is present, but the relationship between Longmire and “The Cheyenne Nation” isn’t as prominent as in earlier books. Undersheriff Victoria “Vic” Moretti, being groomed by Walt to be his eventual replacement as sheriff (and other, less official duties) holds a central place, as usual forcing Walt to consider and deal with things he might wish to postpone. For regular readers of the series, it is good to be back in their company.

The story is told differently, though, in that Johnson uses a double, converging time line to tell the story, beginning in the present, then switching back and forth between “now” and a time ten days earlier. The effect is to put the reader immediately into the action, while filling in the back story in the switches. It may take some getting used to, but doesn’t, in my opinion, detract from the story.

The conclusion is classic Longmire, and will not disappoint. The Dark Horse is the latest in one of the best mystery series going. Don’t miss it.

Copyright ©2009 Larry W. Chavis

Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 1, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0446535931
ISBN-13: 978-0446535939
$6.99

Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis

We all, writers, publishers, booksellers, and readers have grown accustomed to the various genre divisions of commercial fiction – thriller, suspense, romance, mystery, etc. – because they provide a handy organizational tool, a way to group books and authors which share certain characteristics. It would be a mistake, however, to view these divisions as hard and fast. While it is certainly easy to distinguish an antebellum romance from a techno-thriller, there is far more overlap in many of these genres than one might think.

Afraid, by Jack Kilborn, is a book not easy to classify. Crime fiction? It is certainly full of crimes of a high order. Suspense thriller? The intensity of its suspense is breath-taking. Horror? Its terrors slash viciously out of the darkness, page after page. Read Afraid and then walk down a rutted path deep in the woods without raising gooseflesh at every snap of a twig. This book is not for the faint-of-heart.

Yet Mr. Kilborn does not depend on some long-in-the-tooth undead noble (or his more tiresome modern progeny), no werewolves, witches, or practitioners of the Black Arts. The horrors in Afraid originate in an even greater evil: humanity’s never-ending crusade for more efficient and ghastly ways of killing each other. While the book depends on technologies that are – with any luck – not yet in existence, there is little doubt that someone, somewhere is working feverishly to bring them to birth. Kilborn plunges the reader deep into the shocking reality of a world in which they are set loose on a small town.

Safe Haven, Wisconsin is its name, but the crash of a helicopter strips it in one short night of any illusions of safety. Within minutes of the crash the dying begins, and a ruthless, implacable force spreads into the town, killing horribly, seeking the answer to one question: “Where is Warren Streng?” Isolated by geography and the military, the only opposition is Sheriff Streng, Warren’s long-estranged brother, Josh VanCamp, an idealistic firefighter, and Fran Stauffer, single mother and waitress. This unlikely crew must fight their own terror as they try to defeat their unknown foes.

Written in an unrelenting fever-pitch style, Afraid is a page-turner you truly will not want to put down.

Copyright ©2009  Larry W. Chavis