Into Thin Air [Paperback]

Thomas Zigal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 1996

Mountain man, ex-hippie, and single father, Sheriff Kurt Muller feels like an outsider in his hometown of Aspen, Colorado.  Old enough to remember Aspen's more rustic years, Muller can't quite get used to its identity as "Glamour Gultch," where ski bums, Latino migrant workers, and extravagant jet-setters live in uneasy proximity.  In this volatile mix, Muller finds his personal code of ethics is more and more at odds with the compromises of elected office.

But even for Muller there's nothing ambiguous about a dead man floating down Roaring Fork River.  A beautiful doctor identifies the John Doe as an acclaimed Argentine journalist, and Muller, mesmerized by her stories of brutality and corruption in Argentina, finds himself taking unusual and unprofessional risks to solve the crime which comes to haunt him when the woman vanishes.  Implicated in her disappearance and suddenly the FBI's target in a drug-trafficking case based on his radical past, Muller searches desperately for a way to clear himself and protect his family from sinister forces on either side of the law.  As he presses ever closer to the truth, Muller confronts Aspen's changing ethos and, ultimately, an unresolved family tragedy that has haunted his life.

Tough, inventive, and deeply human, Into Thin Air is page-turning suspense at its very best.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

When Kurt Miller, ex-hippie sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, finds a body in the Roaring Fork River, he plunges into a complex case involving Argentinian terrorists, local politics, his own marital problems, and doubts about his suitability for the job. Resigning, but continuing to investigate, he is forced to confront his past, including his Vietnam vet brother's mysterious suicide. Zigal develops male and female characters well, including a Hunter Thompson-type who would be at home in a James Crumley tale. The author keeps an intricate plot going, knows his Colorado scene, and creates a main character readers will want to meet again. This is an unusually fine first mystery and should win many fans who will rejoice to learn that Zigal is working on a second Muller story. Highly recommended.
-?Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Kurt Muller, the hippie sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, has grown into the job over the years. He warily watches the growth of Aspen, the county seat and his hometown. He misses his brother, a suicide, and his ex-wife, who mysteriously abandoned Kurt and their son, Lennon, to live on an Oregon ashram. He maintains his easygoing demeanor, not hassling potheads or illegals, but keeping the big-time drug operators off his turf. He obsesses over unsolved cases and still rues the day TedBundy escaped from his custody. When an Argentine diplomat is murdered at a local seminar on world peace, and the arrest of several suspects turns into a bloodbath, FBI agent Neal Staggs, Muller's nemesis, sees an opening to force the unconventional sheriff out of office and, with any luck, straight into prison. Zigal has written an outstanding first novel: he introduces a textured, fully developed detective, places him in a rich environment ripe with fictional possibilities, and surrounds him with a terrific supporting cast. Highly recommended. George Needham --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Dell (August 2, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440222516
• ISBN-13: 978-0440222514
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,855,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Zigal (1948) was born in Galveston, Texas, and grew up in nearby Texas City. He received a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Stanford. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Kurt Muller mystery series set in Aspen, Colorado, and a thriller entitled The White League set in New Orleans. He has published short stories and book reviews in literary magazines and fiction anthologies for the past 30 years. Zigal lives in Austin, Texas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Fast Read, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Into Thin Air (Paperback)

Unlike the shopper from Carpenteria (reveiw below or above). I really enjoyed the book. I love mystery novels and had never read a Kurt Muller mystery prior to In To Thin Air. This book is easy to get into and I thoroughly enjoyed the "hippie" sheriff. Try it you might like it. I did.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love this series, July 15, 2008

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into Thin Air (Kurt Muller Mysteries) (Paperback)

I have so enjoyed my discovery of Thomas Zigal's Kurt Muller mystery series this year. I read them backward (the latest one first, etc.) until I reached his first one, Into Thin Air.

Ten years ago the Rabid Skunk Party, "angered by the rampant greed of real-estate developers and back-room chicanery in city government," formed to take back Aspen, Colorado. They didn't have much luck, in fact they lost every seat but one: sheriff. Kurt Muller not only won the seat but has been re-elected ever since. He runs the Pitkin County Sheriff Department with a less-than-iron fist. Still, everyone adores him.

Attending the Global Unity Conference are Argentina journalist Omar Quirfgo and Dr. Garciela Rojas. Quirfgo turns up dead; Rojas is missing. Now the Feds have showed up to stick their noses into the sheriff's case. The Feds hit a house full of illegal Latino immigrants and that's when all hell breaks loose.

Originally published in 1995 (and re-printed by The Toby Press in 2005), Zigal explores the problems of illegal immigration years before it was brought into the national consciousness.

Into Thin Air filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle that I didn't have since I started with Pariah, then moved to Hardrock Stiff. Interesting and surprising information came out about why Kurt's wife abandoned their marriage and their five-year-old son, Lennon, and details about the death of Kurt's older brother, Burt. The ex-wife is nobler than I imagined. On the other hand, there are some bombshells that are forcing me to re-think how I feel about Kurt's thinly-disguised hero worship of his big brother. Here we get the most of the details about Burt's death.

One thing that sent me to the Internet to do a little research was the mention of the Ted Bundy case. I remembered that he had been executed in Florida in the 1970s, but I had forgotten the Colorado connection. Colorado was in the second wave of Bundy killings, and he managed to escape from an Aspen jail-a piece of American crime history that could have used a little more information.

Armchair Interviews says: An excellent series, best read in order to have the full backstory.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FABULOUS, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Into Thin Air (Paperback)

What a great adventure. A great true tale