Customer Reviews

Death Song

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over the years, McGarrity has been one of my favorite authors, and I've eagerly followed the travails of his protagonist, Kevin Kerney, a Santa Fe police chief. Perhaps because McGarrity is a former deputy sheriff, he's been able to masterly depict the law-enforcement apparatus. Also, perhaps because he's from New Mexico, he's been able to so well evoke the haunting landscape of that State.

Thus, I was disappointed when I read "Death Song". It certainly starts off in startling fashion---the ambush of a deputy sheriff and, in a separate incident, the gruesome murder of his wife. Then, there's the tension of the tenuous reuniting of Kerney and his Apache son, Sergeant Clayton Istee, when they attempt to solve these murders. However, about half-way through, the story gets bogged down--there's a tangential drug bust of some acquaintances of the slain couple's son, the prolonged search for the son, and more angst than usual regarding the relationship between Kerney and his wife, Sara. The discovery of the culprit at the end of the novel seems sudden and almost incidental. In "Death Song", there's neither the vigor or rigor of McGarrity's previous novels.

It will be interesting to see where this excellent (up until now) series goes from here. Kerney is retiring, and plans on accompanying Sara, an Army colonel recuperating from Iraq battle wounds, to London where she will be serving the next 3 years as a military attache to the U.S. Embassy. Maybe Kerney will be doing his sleuthing in London. Perhaps this series ends. It would be unfortunate if it did end on such a sour note.

New Mexico law enforcement at all levels is stunned with the murders of one of their own and the victim's spouse. Someone assassinated rookie deputy sheriff Tim Riley of Lincoln County and gunned down the man's wife in their Santa Fe home.

Although he has one more month on the job before he retires, Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kearney is actively leading the homicide investigation of the wife's murder that occurred in his jurisdiction. His son Lincoln County Sheriff Office Sergeant Clayton Istee is looking into the ambush murder of Riley. He takes it personally as he trained the fortyish officer and sent him out solo on that fatal assignment. Father and son team up as they find a possible link to the killings of two women in Albuquerque. As they follow the deadly clues, they soon find them embroiled with hardened thugs trafficking in drugs.

DEATH SONG is a terrific police procedural with double the fun as father and son work together to solve the homicides. Kevin is at his best as he refuses to coast into retirement with a dead cop case unsolved. He also relishes working with his offspring. Fans of the series know that Michael McGarrity always provides a strong New Mexico mystery; newcomers will seek the back list when retirement was a long way off for the hero.

Harriet Klausner

In Death Song, Michael McGarrity again creates a compelling story woven into a backdrop of authentic New Mexican settings and characters.

McGarrity's extensive law enforcement background adds credibility to the story telling and his ability to write makes the ins and outs of criminal investigation easy to understand and very enjoyable.

McGarrity's way of painting a picture in his stories puts the reader smack dab in New Mexico. Readers not familiar with the state can rest assured that the locations he describes are just as they appear in all their beauty or degredation.

The Kerney novels are a joy to read and should be in everyone's collection.

This eleventh novel in the series opens with the son of Kevin Kerney. Sergeant Clayton Istee is part of the Lincoln county sheriff's office these days and likes it much better than when he worked as a patrol officer for the Mescalero Apache Tribal police. Not only does he have plenty of interesting work, he also is the training officer for a newly hired deputy. Not that Tim Riley needed much training. Riley has been a police officer for a number of years so he passed his tests, checked out well, and is out on his first solo patrol. Unfortunately all that training didn't save his life.

The Santa Fe Police Chief, Kevin Kerney, is unaware that Tim Riley is dead. He knows that Tim is working over in Lincoln County and that his wife, Denise, has been reported missing. A report that he takes seriously since the reporting party is the sister and his long time assistant, Helen. The search of the home and surrounding landscape takes time, but, eventually Denise is found with her throat slashed. Clearly, somebody targeted the husband and wife for death.

The question is why?

Since the cases are linked, law enforcement in both jurisdictions join forces. Chief Kerney is due to retire soon and isn't about to back off until he helps solve this last major case. Sergeant Clayton Istee is just as determined especially since he believes he has a spiritual connection to the slain man.

Billed as a Kevin Kerney novel, this isn't one by any stretch of the imagination. Kerney makes a few appearances throughout the novel along with obligatory appearances by his war traumatized wife, Sarah and his precious son, Patrick. Instead, it is primarily a novel of Clayton Ishtee and of the many people who populate both their worlds.

As such, Kerney is frequently used to serve as introduction to people who Clayton would do well to know. Themes of his own, such as the pending loss of his job, the politics within his own department, the politics regarding the task force, and numerous other issues aren't explored to any depth.

One would think that if he would ignore such issues and primary use Kerney as a way to introduce Clayton Istee to folks, that would mean that author Michael McGarrity would go into depth regarding the Clayton character. That would be mistaken because the author chooses not to go into any depth in this case either. Here, there is another rich minefield of emotion waiting for work and it is, for the most part, ignored totally or only given superficial consideration. Not only does he not explore the fact that, for all intents and purposes, Clayton is losing his father again after only recently finding out about him, he gives lip service to the politics of the task force or the fact that Clayton is having dream visions of the dead. These issues and numerous others are ignored.

Instead, this novel slowly meanders through the point of view of numerous secondary characters and suspects. The constant pov shifts have little depth to them, add little to the story and further slow down a work that already moves very slowly.

The result is not one of the Kevin Kerney novels we know and love. Instead, this is a novel of little style or substance, superficial characters and a distance that is off putting to the reader. A novel that may mark the passing of the New Mexico baton to Clayton Ishtee and a different and far less enjoyable style of writing.


Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2008

In Death Song - after the disappointing Nothing But Trouble - the author somewhat returns to his old form. Our hero, Kevin Kerney, Santa Fe's Chief of Police, is approaching retirement. His "last case" is the ambush and murder of a newly hired deputy sheriff - whom everyone liked but didn't know much about. When the slain sheriff's wife is subsequently also murdered, things get complicated.

As a police procedural the book begins well and for those of you familiar with the series, Kerney works this case with his grown son, also a police officer. (There's a story-line here from the previous books in the series that I won't spoil.) Unfortunately the story bogs down as the investigation into the victims' backgrounds proceeds, particularly the hunt for the dead couple's estranged son, which once resolved, serves no real purpose.

Furthermore, Kerney's relationship/soap opera with his military wife - a character who never seems to fit - is becoming tiresome and repetitive. As the book ends, our hero is destined for London which may either be good or bad news. A change of venue may provide a spark. On the other hand a major part of this series' magic is the author's portrayal of New Mexico.

Death Song is definitely a step up from its predecessor but is not one of the better books of the series.

This is the eighth Kevin Kerney novel that Michael McGarrity has written. By now, the author has gotten pretty practiced at creating characters, many of whom recur from one book to the next. Kerney, the author's main character, is a policeman in New Mexico. In the current book, Kerney is about to retire from his job as the second in command of the New Mexico State Police. The novel starts when Kerney's illegitimate son, a county sheriff's deputy who is half Apache, Clayton Istee, is called on to investigate the death of one of the officers under his command. When he attempts to contact the man's wife, it's discovered that she, too, is dead, and that of course gets everyone's attention.

McGarrity is good at creating characters, and recounting things that seem to replicate real investigations and real crimes. This book, in that regard, is no exception. If there's a problem, it's that the story winds up relying on forensics for its solution, so that there's not as much real detection as you'd expect.

Still, I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it.

Death Song seems to be a transition book.

That is to say, a possible passing of the torch from Mr. McGaritty's seminal character, Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney, to that of his illegitimate son Clayton Istee. While Kerney still plays an important role in this novel, he seems to play more of an overseer role of the main investigation while coming to terms with his impending retirement and move to London (for his wife Sarah). The focus of the action and attention seems to shift toward Istee coming into his own as a seasoned detective and learning to live up to Kerney's legacy and accept him as a father. We are also introduced to a few new characters into the Kerney universe (or now Clayton Istee universe) in the form of deputies that are a welcome addition to the cast and seem promising for future stories as players.

The mystery of this book was pretty well kept, with a few twists and turns (not too radical, but enough) that kept me guessing all the way to the last few chapters. I like these `who-dunnits' as opposed to finding out who the main perpetrator is half way through the novel.

There isn't much traditional southwestern lore in this installment, other than a brief revelation that Istee has during a dream, but despite the lack of native American culture and symbolism, McGaritty is still able to capture the environment in beauty through his description of the winter season. One thing I did enjoy is McGarrity pokes a little harmless fun at both Tom Clancy and Tony Hillerman that is a tad amusing and more as an homage to them than a dig.

The mystery itself involves with the opening and sudden death of a recent police deputy who was just hired, and the discovery of his wife's murder a few hours away. When the investigation begins to develop, it appears the deceased wife may not be exactly be who she says she's been all these years, and it doesn't help when the one promising suspect also turns up dead later on.

With double-lives, stolen foreign gold coins, and local drug running thrown in the mix, the police are baffled at the connections, if there even is any.

But for those readers expecting a great Kevin Kerney novel may be somewhat let down as McGarrity places Istee on the forefront and alludes to the fact Kevin is moving on and away.

This is a splendidly written police procedural featuring Apache Sgt. Istee, recently acknowledged son of Santa Fe Police chief Kevin Kerney (featured in the previous 10 volumes of McGarrity's series). This story restores the series to the high plane it generally had before the Nothing But Trouble interlude. Glad to see that last one was a momentary lapse.

McGarrity warns us to watch for the details needed to solve a perplexing murder spree. An extraordinarily careful killer is systematically eliminating a police family, who seemingly had no secrets to hide or enemies to fear. It is fascinating to watch how the police investigators, forensic, crime scene, and drug teams manage to collect the "little details" from seemingly immaculately clean, pathologically perfect crimes. But which is the critical clue?

The plotting is taut, involving, the central series characters grow and develop. It rushes right along...until the final chapters, which felt anticlimactic after such a great buildup. OK, so it isn't the vast conspiracy we suspected, but this little perp? And in hindsight, the crimes weren't solved, simply because McGarrity arbitrarily holds study of the critical early clue to the very end. Still and all, I enjoyed the story and accurate settings much better than in the previous novel. I'm glad that is so, because this is the last case for Kevin Kerney as SFP Chief. Can it really be the last we see of him and his family--recovering slowly from traumas in earlier novels--as he retires now to London? Or does the focus now shift to Kevin's rediscovered son, Lt. Clayton Istee?

Death Song (Kevin Kerney Novels)
I've been a big McGarrity fan, having read all of his prior books. But "Death Song" struck me as a struggle for him to fill the pages and complete a new book. The plot and the characters never develop well, and there are so many simply-descriptive sentences that I had the feeling Mr. McGarrity needed to make a short story longer. It's the least of my favorite Kevin Kerney books, and I'd be miffed if I had purchased it, rather than borrowing it from the library.

The author, with wide police experience, knows his stuff. As his retirement approaches, our hero, will probably depend on his recently discovered son, for some action. This story was probably the smoothest of the series. Well done.