Amazon.com Review
Kevin Kerney might just be the best cop currently working the mean streets of mystery fiction. As deputy chief of the New Mexico State Police, he is not tortured by the doubts, angst, alcoholism, or mixed motives that seem to overwhelm many of his fictional colleagues. His methods are rarely flashy or excessively macho, and he treats other cops of all ranks with a minimum of attitude. Author Michael McGarrity, who worked for Santa Fe's sheriff's department before retiring to write, has managed to make Kerney human without loading him with excess baggage.
As we've come to realize in three previous books--Mexican Hat, Serpent Gate, and Tularosa--Kerney works as a police officer to make the money he needs to buy a cattle ranch like the one he grew up on. In Hermit's Peak, that dream comes closer to reality when a woman painter leaves Kerney a large portion of her own property on a mesa northeast of Santa Fe. McGarrity describes this land with the keen simplicity of natural poetry. Reality (in the form of a huge inheritance tax bill) darkens the picture. But the discovery of a very rare cactus plant and the unexpected arrival of Sara Brannon (the career army officer with whom Kerney had a romance in an earlier book) let in a few rays of sunlight. Meanwhile, Kerney and a tough local cop have to deal with a rape and murder, plus enough everyday crimes to keep them seriously busy without busting the boundaries of believability. --Dick Adler
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In McGarrity's fourth Kevin Kerney adventure (Serpent Gate, LJ 5/15/98), the seasoned deputy successfully juggles a windfall inheritance, a sizzling love affair with newly decorated Col. Sara Brannon, and an adoring dog he has rescued named Shoe. When Kerney and his best friend survey sections of high-country ranch land bequeathed to Kerney by artist Erma Ferguson, a shaggy, abandoned mutt appears with a tennis shoe in his mouth and leads the men to a woman's skeletal remains. The investigation stalls as Kerney agonizes over his newly acquired land, probably about to be sacrificed to the tax gods, and as Sara, confused about their "impossible" relationship, takes off for Tucson. An intriguing subplot concerns a rare species of cactus on Kerney's land and the lady professor crusading on its behalf. McGarrity's plotting mirrors real life so effectively that readers will grieve for or celebrate with characters by this tale's bittersweet endAalways a sure sign of good writing. Recommended.ASusan A. Zappia, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
