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Living in London while his wife serves as a military attaché at the American
Embassy, recently retired Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney gets an early
morning phone call that changes everything and sends him hurrying home to his
New Mexico ranch. Riley Burke, his partner in a horse training enterprise, has
been mowed down on Kerney’s doorstep by an escaped prisoner cutting a murderous
swathe through New Mexico.
As the killings mount, Kerney teams up with his
half-Apache son, Lieutenant Clayton Istee of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s
Department, to hunt for a psychotic murderer with a growing appetite for blood,
who has no intention of being taken alive.
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My own review:
I myself finished it yesterday -- and I'm here to tell you it's very, very good - a different slant to the series in that it certainly isn't a "who dun it" but a "how do we stop him"!! And for a long while you watch Craig Larson's descent into escalating violence while law enforcement cannot seem to put a hand on him. Given the very good reason that Larson has killed his friend and partner as the very beginning of his spree, Kerney flies back from London, dons a New Mexico State Police special investigator's badge and joins Clayton Istee, his part Apache son, in the cat and mouse chase all over New Mexico. The ending is swift, sure and shocking.
There is some great writing here, and Michael shows how evocative his writing can be in juxtaposing his and Clayton's growing closeness and camaraderie along side Larson's mad-bad psychosis and killing. My own feeling is that even though the natural beauty of New Mexico seems to take a back seat to all the mayhem in this book, really it is there all the time thwarting and helping first Larson and then the good guys.
And another thing I disagree with is the tendency to equate Michael and his writing with Tony Hillerman and taking over and filling his shoes. Michael is no imitator and has never been a Tony Hillerman clone. They both may be adept at portraying the deep love they have for their own corner of the world, but Michael has earned his place as standing tall in his own shoes on his own success. He is a bloody good writer and this is a bloody good book!!
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New York Times Book Review – Crime | Marilyn Stasio:
In the iconography of thrillers, a serial killer can be psychologically complex as well as gruesomely entertaining But you can't beat a spree for raw action, and in DEAD OR ALIVE (Dutton, $25.95), Michael McGarrity has produced a true monster in Craig Larson. After Larson slaughters some half-dozen people in the sparsely populated rangelands of northern New Mexico, including a youth minister from a Bible camp, it finally dawns on him that "he just flat-out enjoyed killing people." But when he shoots a cowboy who worked at a ranch owned by Kevin Kerney, retired chief of the Santa Fe police department, the manic Larson sets off a major manhunt. The procedures for trapping a spree killer are less analytical and more picturesque than those for catching a serial killer, and McGarrity, a former deputy sheriff, knows the drill. He also knows the territory, which he portrays in a blunt, invigorating style that, even after a dozen books, still feels fresh.
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Crime Critics
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Tribune
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Military Bookshelf: Mid-Winter Chills & Thrills - Book Reviews
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New Mexico magazine
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