Appearing in his third Wyoming mystery, Sheriff Starbranch is drawn into a murder investigation to try and clear the name of his best friend and finds himself untangling a web of criminal activity that puts him in the path of Junior Stone, a hardened killer with a serious grudge."
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Crossing the high desert country in the southern part of Wyoming, Sheriff Harry Starbranch of the small town of Victory keeps his eyes peeled for a wild horse that roams the area: "The sight of him running flat-out--long mane and tail flying, thick haunch muscles bunching, sharp hooves pounding the packed ground--is enough to take my breath away." The overlay of Western myth on modern murder mystery makes this book by former Wyoming journalist Gregory Bean (who now lives in New Jersey!) well worth our time. Starbranch is a flawed but tenacious lawman, on the track of whoever shot a San Francisco hustler and left his body to become a grizzly bear's lunch. Available in paperback are Long Shadows in Victory and No Comfort in Victory.
From Booklist
The hard-boiled western mystery has become a distinct subgenre of the crime novel. It unfolds in beautiful country, with a detective facing a threat to lives, friendships--even the country itself. The detective solves the case with toughness, courage, determined sleuthing, and understated humor. James Crumley and Nevada Barr write compelling hard-boiled western mysteries. So does Gregory Bean. His third novel featuring Harry Starbranch, police chief of Victory, Wyoming, opens with the gruesome death of Liam O'Bannion, apparently by bear attack. The real cause of death was a bullet; Curly Ahearn, Harry's best friend, becomes the prime suspect because he publicly thrashed O'Bannion for hitting his daughter. Set in Wyoming's Rockies and high desert--with some action in San Francisco--the novel offers interesting and sympathetic characters, nail-biting suspense, eloquent outrage about wildlife poaching, and a mystery plot that is unsettling and surprising. Starbranch is a modern knight errant, using wit and strength to cut pompous, bullying, and arrogant people down to size. John Rowen
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant surprise,
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This review is from: A Death in Victory (Hardcover)
If you are an avid reader, you know how much of a gamble it can be to pick up a book by an author you've never heard of and jump into the middle of a series. You could get lucky and find a great new author to read or you could just be wasting your time.Well, I'm pleased to report that this is a great book and I'm going to seek out the others in the series. 'Death in Victory' is the third in a series featuring Harry Starbranch, the town police officer in Victory, Wyoming. Rather than go through plot details I'll give you a general idea about the book. 'A Death in Victory' read a bit like Robert Parker meets Tony Hillerman. Starbranch is a wisecracking cop who is not afraid to throw his fists. He has friends and connections everywhere and is not afraid to use them. But, like Hillerman, there's an acknowledgement of the reality of the immmenseness of the wide open western spaces. He describes Wyoming and its culture as lovingly as Hillerman describes the Navajo reservation and its environs. In case you are wondering, you do not have to read the previous books in the series in order to follow along with this one. Good plot, well-paced. The ending surprised me but also made sense. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I give this one an A.
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