From Publishers Weekly
Returning from 2004's Slow Kill, stoic Sante Fe police chief Kevin Kerney receives an unexpected visit from Johnny Jordan, a childhood friend and now cantankerous former rodeo pro, who convinces Kerney to serve as a technical adviser in the shooting of a local western film. Eager for a break, Kerney heads to the location in southwestern Bootheel with his lovely wife, Army Lt. Col. Sara Brannon, and his young son, Patrick, in tow. But what starts out as a working vacation in this seventh Kerney outing quickly detours into a bloody crime scene when the body of an undercover Border Patrol agent is dumped onto Highway 81. In no time, U.S. Customs joins Kerney's investigation into a possible illegal immigrant and drug smuggling operation. Meanwhile, Sara's army job unexpectedly takes her to Ireland where she must track down and seize the notorious George Spalding, a gemstone smuggler and wartime deserter. McGarrity focuses on the details of the settings and on the characters' tactical maneuvers career- and parenting-wise. The result is slightly amplified sleuthing, deftly swapped out at surprising moments to the POV of the bad guys, and with fine but low-grade intensity.
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From
The title of this latest in the Kevin Kerney series misses the point entirely. Yes, many cop novels, especially those veering toward noir, are about nothing but trouble, but McGarrity's series--at least since Kerney became Santa Fe chief of police and married career army officer Sarah--has been about all sorts of things besides trouble: domestic life in a long-distance marriage and the joys and frustrations of middle-age parenting, for example. McGarrity's remarkable eye for detail, always the hallmark of his series, remains so, whether the hero is choosing a day-care facility or working a stakeout. This time the action is split between Sarah tracking an army defector in Ireland--a story begun in Slow Kill (2004)--and Kerney serving as a consultant on a movie about rodeo competitors. There's plenty of trouble on both fronts, of course, but McGarrity never loses sight of the everyday, even in the heat of battle. Longtime fans of the series may yearn for some of the edginess of the early installments, but that's how it goes with life--either too much excitement or not enough. Bill Ott
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