You are here: Michael McGarrity > Books> Everyone Dies
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Synopsis
Santa
Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney
and his wife, Lt. Colonel Sara Brannon,
are on leave and eagerly awaiting the
birth of their son when a prominent
gay attorney is gunned down outside
his office by an unknown assailant.
Called to the crime scene and faced
with scanty evidence and no apparent
motive, Kerney directs his chief of
detectives to delve into the victim's
personal and professional life, a decision
which ultimately leads to a SWAT team
screw-up and the death of two innocent
people.
But the killer has just begun. Kerney's horse, a mustang he'd gentled and trained, is viciously and senselessly destroyed, a dead rat is left on his doorstep, and a second victim with ties to the criminal justice system is found in bed with her throat cut along with a warning, EVERYONE DIES. As a time of joy turns into a nightmare, Kerney and Sara search desperately for a seemingly unstoppable chameleon killer who promises to murder them and their unborn son. "Everyone Dies", 2003 |
"He could see headlights of cars traveling on Paseo De Peralta, a street that looped around the historical core of the city, and a few of the traffic lights along Saint Francis Drive, the state road that led north to Taos. Behind the city the mountains were soft, obscure shapes in a star-filled night sky, and the semicircular sliver of the moon looked like the cutting edge of an old-fashioned sickle suspended in the air."
"Everyone Dies" (2003)
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Location Map |
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Interactive maps - click on a place name for the link |
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LocaleSANTA FE - GO Albuquerque
On 23 April 1706 Francisco Cuervo y Valdés, who
replaced Governor Vargas in 1704, wrote to the king
of Spain and to the viceroy of New Spain he had
founded a new villa in New Mexico. Cuervo y Valdés
named the community after the viceroy, Fernandez
de la Cueva, Duque de Alburquerque. The governor,
in his letter wrote: I certify to his majesty: That I have founded a villa on the banks and in the valley of the River of the North in a place of good fields, waters, pastures, and timber, distant from this villa of Santa Fe about twenty-two leagues, . . . naming it the Villa of Alburquerque. . . . There are now thirty-five families located there, comprising 252 persons, adults and children. The Church has been completed . . . the government buildings have been begun, and other houses of the settlers are finished with their corrals, irrigation ditches running, fields sowed--all without any expense to the Royal Treasury. In creating the new community Governor Cuervo
y Valdés failed to follow Spain's legal code when
he did not inform the King and Viceroy about the
villa. It was highly irregular and presumptuous
for a provisional governor to act on his own, especially
when Cuervo y Valdés wanted the governorship to
be a permanent appointment. He then boldly requested
the Duke of Alburquerque to contribute "bells,
ornaments, chalices, missals, images and jewels
. . . ," for the new church located on Alburquerque's
plaza |
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Socorro The name SOCORRO means "help" in Spanish. In 1598, Juan de Onate gave this name to the pueblo. The Pilabo Indians gave them food and shelter. In 1680 the Pueblo people of New Mexico revolted against their Spanish masters. The people from Socorro did not join in the revolt and as a result, retreated with the fleeing Spanish to the vicinity of modern day El Paso, Texas. Their descendents still live in Socorro del Sur...Socorro of the South...in Texas.The Spanish returned to New Mexico, in 1692 but the Socorro area remained empty. By the late 18th Century, officials in Santa Fe began planning the resettle. This was to protect the trail from Santa Fe to Chihuahua, Mexico. The Apache people were making travel through this area very dangerous -- the Chihuahua trail was already known as La Jornada del Muerto...the Trail of the Dead Man or Journey of Death. |
Mescalero Reservation
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ReviewsKirkus starred review - June 15, 2003 Another impeccable outing from the master of the small-city procedural (The Big Gamble, 2002, etc.). Santa Fe's the small city, Kevin Kerney its estimable police chief, a man of strong convictions, strong feelings -- sensitive yes, but sufficiently draconian when the situation warrants. Now, however, he finds himself stalked by a relentless sociopath bent on vengeance for acts of aggression he chooses not to specify and Kerney can't imagine. The decorated war veteran, famously cool under fire, would never be unduly disturbed by threats aimed solely at him, but his heart does flip-flops when he reads a note that says: "Kerney, can't wait to meet the wife. See you soon." Found near the corpse of a woman horribly murdered, it refers ominously to Sara Brannon Kerney, days away from delivering their child. A horse Kerney lovingly trained is slaughtered; the house owned by Clayton Istee, Kerney's son, is booby-trapped, blown to bits; the hospital where Sara's confined is scarily penetrated. Corpses pile up, the investigation heats up, but the avenger is not only clever but also well informed about cops and the ways an unwary perpetrator can play into (or a savvy one remain tantalizingly out of) their hands. At length, of course, the Kerneys and their would-be killer meet face-off in a denouement as sudden and violent as it is satisfying.
Warning to the fainthearted:
Every thirty pages or so your mouth
may go dry.
Publishers Weekly - June 30, 2003 The questions and concerns of relationships, both everyday and extraordinary, personal and professional, lie at the heart of McGarrity’s ninth entry in his Kevin Kerney series of police procedurals (The Big Gamble; Tularosa; The Judas Judge). Kerney, chief of the Santa Fe Police force, and his wife, Sara Brannon, pregnant and due to give birth at any moment, have just begun a much needed vacation. Sara is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Military Police and will be assigned to the Pentagon just six weeks after the baby is born - a career move that Kerney opposes. A vicious killer slashes his way into the midst of this family crises, beginning by shooting a Santa Fe lawyer, and in quick succession murdering Kerney’s beloved horse, a forensic psychologist and a probation officer. It doesn’t take long for Kerney to realize that his entire family has been targeted, especially after the killer begins leaving messages that say, “Everyone Dies.” Area law enforcement personnel rally around the chief and begin a massive investigation. The large and varied supporting cast is sometimes difficult to keep straight, but McGarrity’s fondness for his characters is evident, as is love for the harsh but beautiful mountain and desert landscape they inhabit. Readers familiar with the series will be happy to settle back with the chief, his complicated family and the men and women of the department for another enjoyable installment. 20-city author tour. (Sept) Booklist - August 2003 McGarrity’s Kevin Kerney series, set in New Mexico, has undergone a dramatic transformation over the years. At first, it played heavily on the mythic West and the difficulty of adapting rugged individualism to the modern world. Lately, the focus has shifted to the everyday life of a contemporary police chief—a good man trying to balance the contradictory roles of tough cop and sensitive husband. The new focus is far more difficult—Who wants quotidian reality when you’ve had a taste of mythic resonance?—but McGarrity rises to the occasion, drawing on his real-life experience as a cop and therapist. This time an unidentified psycho has his sights set on Kerney, his family, and his soon-to-be-born child. This is one serial-killer novel that unfolds without the usual high-concept trappings. McGarrity contrasts the painstaking investigatory work that leads to identifying a suspect with the personal crisis Kerney and his wife, Sara, face. Uncertain about how a child will affect their relationship, the couple must now contend with a much more immediate threat to their lives. The quiet, subtle attention to detail that has long been a hallmark of the Kerney series is once again on display here. The brooding, burned-out yet larger-than-life heroes of Ian Rankin or George Pelecanos have their appeal, yet there’s plenty of room in the genre for a cop like Kevin Kearney, who broods not about the lack of meaning in his life, but about finding time to help his wife decorate their new house. — Bill Ott
This sparks a massive manhunt, small consolation to Chief Kerney or his pregnant wife, since they have no idea who the assailant is, or why he’s embarked on this grisly mission. It means back-watching on a 24/7 basis, paranoid-making at best, wearying at least, dead at worst. Kerney is a tough, well-balanced law officer with a highly-trained staff who can make leaps of logic and intuition as all good police officers must. But this case has them buffaloed. The pace accelerates when the killer contacts Kerney, and we see a diabolical and twisted mind in action. Through diligent police work, and knowledge of the differences between revenge killing and serial killing, Kerney acts on a conviction that adds extra spice to the last third of the novel. And we see the reason for it all in the closing pages as the inevitable face-to-face occurs between Kerney and the killer. This is the eighth Kevin Kerney thriller by Michael McGarrity, himself an ex-Deputy Sheriff for Santa Fe County, and a trained psychotherapist. He presents us with meticulous police work, an outstanding protagonist in honest-cop Kerney, and an insight into a killer’s mind that is both revealing and frightening. His characterization is excellent, particularly of Kerney’s fellow officers, and of the complex relationships between Kerney and his wife, and Kerney and his son by an earlier liaison. The plot has enough twists to keep us actively involved, and the story moves along at a smooth pace, rising to rapid-fire in the crises. An enjoyable read, with an added bonus of enough background to give us an appreciation of the New Mexico landscape. It makes one who has never been there want to go. - Michael F. Hennessey
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Dead
rats, dead cats, dead dogs, a dead horse, plus several
murders, all inform the pattern of a revenge killer
whose ultimate aim is to annihilate Santa Fe Police
Chief Kevin Kerney, his family, and all known relatives.
As a note left at a crime scene states, "Everyone
dies."
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