The Big Gamble: A Kevin Kerney Novel (Kevin Kerney Novels) [Hardcover]

Michael McGarrity (Author)

Book Description

Series: Kevin Kerney Novels | Publication Date: July 3, 2002

When a fire in an abandoned fruit stand in rural Lincoln County reveals the murdered body of a woman gone missing from Santa Fe years ago, Police Chief Kevin Kerney finds himself cooperating with his estranged son, a man he hardly knows, Deputy Sheriff Clayton Istee. While Kerney digs into the woman's past, hoping to find clues that will lead to a credible suspect, Clayton must unravel two more homicides that seem on the surface totally unrelated.

As Kerney chases down clues that raise questions about the legitimacy of a highly regarded modeling and talent agency, Clayton works to discover the identity of a murder suspect alleged to have ties to prostitution and illegal gambling.

Set against the backdrop of the high mountains of southern New Mexico, where gambling is big business and private sexual encounters for VIPs can discreetly be arranged, Kerney and Clayton must go up against rich and politically powerful opponents who are willing to protect their reputations at all costs.

The Big Gamble is a multilayered, adrenaline-pumped novel of crime and punishment set against the beauty and pristine majesty of one of our country's most magnificent landscapes-and a solid addition to a series that continues to gain legions of devoted readers.

"McGarrity has a cunning mind for crime fiction." (The New York Times Book Review)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney never solved the disappearance of Anna Maria Montoya 11 years ago. Then her remains are discovered in the ruins of an abandoned fruit stand in Lincoln County, along with the charred corpse of John Humphrey, whose killer set the fire that revealed Montoya's final resting place. The deputy sheriff investigating Humphrey's murder is Clayton Istee, the estranged son Kerney only recently learned he had. Meanwhile Kerney investigates Montoya's possible ties to a modeling agency that may be a front for a prostitution ring catering to VIPs, Istee focuses on the connection between his murder victim and an illegal gambling operation in rural southern New Mexico. By the time the author ties the parallel but seemingly unrelated investigations together in this intricately plotted thriller, the two lawmen--father and son--have begun to develop a personal as well as a professional relationship, which will likely flower in future outings in this popular series. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Smooth writing, well-drawn characters and several neat plot twists distinguish the seventh Kevin Kerney novel from Anthony Award-nominee and former deputy sheriff McGarrity (Tularosa). Never losing sight of his people in the forensic detail, the author skillfully makes us want to know what happens next without unnecessary violence or contrivance. When two murder victims turn up after a fire in an abandoned fruit stand on a rural highway, Kerney, now the police chief of Sante Fe, N.Mex., takes a personal interest in the case. One blackened corpse is a John Doe, stabbed three times, who is soon identified as a homeless Vietnam vet. The other remains belong to a 29- year-old college student, Anna Marie Montoya, who disappeared 11 years before. As it happens, Kerney was involved in the search for the missing Anna Marie. Investigating the John Doe is Kerney's estranged son, Clayton Istee, now a deputy sheriff for the Lincoln County (N.Mex.) police, whose mother was a full-blooded Mescalero Apache. Clayton, a sympathetic character struggling to support a wife and two small kids, eventually finds himself in charge of a task force looking into a much more complex crime. Kerney would like to effect a reconciliation between himself and his son, but the process proves awkward for them both. McGarrity keeps the parallel plots moving nicely along toward a rational solution. This is an exceptionally intelligent, humane mystery in a series that deserves a wide readership.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (July 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052594656X
• ISBN-13: 978-0525946564
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,113,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best writer of the genre working today, July 3, 2002

By 

Charles M. Nobles (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Gamble: A Kevin Kerney Novel (Kevin Kerney Novels) (Hardcover)

For the legion of readers hooked on Michael McGarrity's crime fiction series featuring Kevin Kerney,it's going to be a great summer. The seventy installment in the highly anticipated series is on the shelves and it was worth the wait.
The setting for the novel is southern New Mexico with it deserts and mountains that provide a breathtaking diversity of geographical wonders equal to any in the United States. Kerney is back as the Police Chief of Santa Fe and happily involved with his wife in plans to build a ranch house on property he bought after receiving a windfall inheritance. Despite inevitable problems associated with his wife, an Army office, being stationed in Kansas, pregnant, and not able to visit Kerney as often as either would like, Kerney is settled into a routine of police work typical to a tourist oriented town. It is, all in all, not bad duty for a career police officer with a bum leg. Not bad duty that is until his estranged son, A Deputy Sheriff in rural Lincoln County, is called to investigate an abandoned fruit stand fire that reveals the bodies of an itinerant Vietnam veteran and a Santa Fe woman that has been missing for eleven years. While the circumstances involving the deaths are suspect they appear to be unrelated until the subsequent investigation by Kerney and Deputy Clayton Istees, his son with an attitude, not only begin to converge but the discovery of two additional bodies leads the reader into a web of intrigue and mystery. The story leads the reader into the world of drug trafficking, illegal gambling, political intrigue, murder, and prostitution that reaches beyond southern New Mexico into California, Colorado,and Texas. The result is a crime thriller by who may be the best writer of the genre working today.
In his trademark style of believable characters and narrative combined with an authentic southwestern setting, McGarrity has again demonstrated his unequaled grasp of the Southwest landscape both physically and culturally. His sense of place, inhabitants, and police procedure is meticulous and a must read for mystery fans.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kevin Kerney is back!, August 8, 2002

By 

tertius3 (MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Gamble: A Kevin Kerney Novel (Kevin Kerney Novels) (Hardcover)

The real Kevin Kerney is back from the irreality of his previous case UNDER THE COLOR OF LAW. For the first time McGarrity splits the story between two cops: Chief Kevin Kerney of Santa Fe and his newly revealed son, Deputy Clayton Istee, 150 miles apart. New and old deaths are gradually interwoven in parallel to the reluctant yet beautifully described reconcilement of these two strangers. This is as much a Big Gamble for the two strong and silent men as are the casinos that figure in the scandalous plot. Maybe they will develop into a famous duo like Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Clayton may be a needed addition in the series because, with an entire police department now at his beck, Chief Kerney will have a hard time doing his old lonesome investigations that made his reputation as a maverick lawman.

McGarrity's stories are not hidden clue mysteries a la Poirot; rather they are dogged police procedurals firmly driven by vivid local color. Here Kerney and Istee must tread carefully, from opposite ends, through personal, ethnic, and political, as well as gambling, sexual, and jurisdictional, minefields. It is McGarrity's ability to write believable plots and personalities that "feel real and right" that makes him a master, and this may be his best. It's curious how some publishers overly rely on spell checkers and miss homonyms; here Dutton drops occasional prepositions.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kerney & Son, December 8, 2003

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Gamble (Paperback)

Michael McGarrity has been writing these Kevin Kerney novels for some time now, with the main character, a New Mexico cop, shifting between jobs as the series progresses. For a while he was essentially a private eye, and for a while he was a state cop; now he's the chief of police of Santa Fe. In the last book he found out that he's also a father, by way of a soap opera stype revelation that an old girlfriend had become pregnant by him but never told him. The girlfriend was a Mescalero Apache, and raised their son as an Indian on the reservation. He went into law enforcement, and now works in Lincoln County, a hundred and fifty miles away from his father.

In the current installment, there's a fire at an abandoned fruit stand in Lincoln County, and the son, Clayton Istee, is tasked to investigate when bodies are discovered inside the building. One turns out to be a homeless vet who had been gambling and amassed a small roll of cash, while the other's a young woman who's been missing for more than a decade. Since the young woman was from Santa Fe, the investigation into her death is passed on to Kerney, giving him and his son time to converse about life, though they do their best to dodge the subject.

I will agree with the one person who complained about the ending: it was a bit anti-climactic. Other than that I enjoyed the book, and think it's one of McGarrity's better books. I would recommend it.