This is the fourth book in the Kevin Kerney novels set in the northern part of New Mexico. In each novel, McGarrity is building Kerney's character and evolving his history with back and fore-story. This book brings back Sarah Brannon back from Korea and dumps her right into Kerney's lap (literally and figuratively). He has also deepened the number of secondary characters who make up the New Mexico State Police in this part of NM.

McGarrity's descriptions of the northern New Mexico landscape and the way that people live their lives and earn their livings rings true. He does a good job in explaining the loss of lands due to inheritance taxes that no one but the rich or land speculators can afford. How does one pass on a 'working ranch' to the next generation without leaving them under an impossible amount of debt?

The actual murder and police procedure is more pedestrian but is well rooted in true crime solving. No one turns out to be a superman or prescient when it comes to tracking down the wrongdoers and other miscreants, just good dogged police work and making sure that every question is asked and answered.

Zeb Kantrowitz

I've just started reading McGarrity and really like him.

Pros.
1) He is a good writer, his books flow naturally and they are easy to read. (Not all best selling authors are good writers.)
2) His characters are likeable, fully fleshed and well written.
3) He's done more for New Mexico than any NM tourist commission could ever do. Before I read his books I thought NM was a desert both in geography and culturally. Now I see that NM has beauty in more ways than one.

Cons.
1) These books are not thrillers. You don't have to guess who did it because he tells you. They are more like dramas where you get to see both sides. I would have given the book a 5 if he had let us discover the nature of the crime with Kerney, but that's it's the same with all his books.

Nevertheless, very satisfying to read. I plan to get all his books.

Firstly, I love the setting for these books. It's New Mexico off the beaten path (with occasional side trips to Albuquerque and Santa Fe), a part of the country I'm familiar with. It's very evocative of the area. And the mysteries are engaging, and pretty well written, too. Characters are drawn well, story moves along, dialog is good - what's not too like. I've read four of this series and liked them all.

i was quite sad about the lieut. lost his son in the end. kerney kept shinning thru the whole story. a man with priciples and plenty chips to deal with the harshness of the new mexico environment. his ranching dream seems to become tougher and more difficult to be realized. never thought ranching business would be so difficult today in america and that really sucks.

Kevin Kerney, McGarrity's tough, sensitive cop, is back in a labyrinthine tale set once again in the wilds of New Mexico. Kerney has inherited land from a schoolmate of his late mother's, and he is ecstatic, even though he may not be able to pay the inheritance tax on it. While looking at his new land, he and his friend Dale Jennings, discover the bones of a female, and it looks like homicide. If that weren't enough, a local citizen, Carl Boaz, is found with a bullet in his forehead on a cabin on Kerney's property. These two crimes propel Kerney and his associates into a maelstrom of rape, murder, and burglary. And, Sara Brannon, Kerney's love from a previous book, returns to add romantic complications to his life. A side plot involves a fellow cop's plight with his son and the son's notoriously bad friend.
Again, the dialogue and settings are rich and authentic, and Kerney plows ahead in this excellent series.