A Long December [Paperback]

Donald Harstad (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2005

A Long December:

American crime fiction’s best-kept secret–as if Michael Connelly had
spent twenty-six years as a small-town cop in Iowa–has written his
breakout book.

Brief Description:

The people of Nation County, Iowa–a heartland town straight out of a
Coen Brothers movie or a John Cougar Mellencamp song–practice a
unique brand of American stoicism. You betcha. And they rely upon
their public servants to shield them from the horrors of the outside
world. Carl Houseman, deputy sheriff of the 750-square-mile county,
dedicates his life to keeping his citizenry so secure that you can leave
the door unlocked at home and walk his streets with a big hello and a
smile to every stranger.  On Houseman’s watch, the mounting terrors
of the new world order stay far away.

But December 2001 could change all of that. Outsiders are everywhere.  
The meat plant is now kosher and there are more Jewish fellows per
capita than any other place in the country. Hispanic and other foreign
workers, with dubious immigration papers, have taken jobs from the
locals. Eighteen other languages are now spoken within the tiny region,
and Carl and company can’t speak a single one.  

Then the eighty-odd-year-old Heinman brothers’ call comes in from
their farm down in Frog Hollow.  They’ve witnessed an execution-style
killing not one hundred yards from their pig feeders. The victim’s awful
dead and half his head’s been blown off. The boys haven’t seen nothing
like it since Normandy. When Carl gets to the scene, he believes them.

What follows is a masterful police procedural thriller–think Joe
Wambaugh crossed with Fargo–written with a singular and authentic
voice that has electrified readers around the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bungling group of terrorists try to poison the beef shipped from an Iowa meat plant in the fifth installment of Harstad's Carl Houseman series of police procedurals (Code Sixty-One, etc.). Though buoyed by its engagingly homespun first-person narration and keen sense of place, the novel suffers from an idling plot that is sometimes frustratingly underdeveloped. Houseman, second in command of the Nation County Sheriff's Department, is investigating an execution-style killing in a remote corner of his jurisdiction. The victim is Latino, one of hundreds of recent immigrants to descend on Nation County who have irked the natives by taking local jobs and injecting a form of multiculturalism that doesn't go over well in rural Iowa. Houseman, along with sidekick state agent Hester Gorse, tie the victim and the killer to the new kosher meat plant in neighboring Battenberg, which is now reeling from the discovery that several sides of beef have been poisoned with the toxic substance ricin. Fortunately, there's been only one death so far-that of the inept terrorist who apparently sprayed the poison on himself as well as the beef. Yet Houseman and others suspect the worst: that Islamic fundamentalists have invaded the heartland with a new strategy to kill Jews. Harstad, a 26-year veteran of Iowa law enforcement, steers his plot to a fine shoot-'em-up ending, yet much of this procedural gets bogged down in procedures that are both predictable and fail to advance the action. Worse, Harstad never fully explains who the terrorists are nor identifies their ultimate goal. Nevertheless, his laid-back Midwestern voice and descriptive skills carry the story and prove again that he has the tools to carve a niche of his own in crime fiction.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Harstad is at the top of his game in this captivating fifth case for rural Iowa deputy sheriff Carl Houseman. It all begins when Carl and state agent Hester Gorse get a call to come out to the Heinmen boys' farm, where they find "one dead, and I mean really dead, dude lying in the roadway." Another even deader dude leads the pair to a crime with international implications, involving a kosher meat-packing plant that employs enough illegal aliens to make the small town of Battenberg a cultural melting pot, with the nation's highest per capita population of rabbis. A wealth of authentic investigative detail and a diverse cast are winningly conveyed through Houseman's gently sardonic tone, pragmatic outlook, and sheer, boyish enthusiasm for his work. Harstad keeps the tension high by punctuating the fine-grained, methodical investigation with short scenes from the explosive final showdown at a derelict farm. This is a thoroughly believable and compelling police procedural from the American heartland's answer to Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin and Henning Mankell. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: Rugged Land (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590710401
• ISBN-13: 978-1590710401
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,784,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book from Harstad!, January 14, 2006

By 

Deborah Wiley (Winter Haven, FL) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: A Long December (Paperback)

Donald Harstad writes an incredibly good police procedural. I'm not even a fan of the genre and yet I am hooked on this series! Carl Houseman, deputy sheriff and senior investigator for Nation County, Iowa, is called to the Heinman farm to investigate a dead body. The dead body, Rudy Cueva, worked at a local kosher meat packing plant in Battenberg and was shot at close range. Soon, another body is found, Juan Gonzalez aka Orejas, only he wasn't shot. Instead, he ingested the deadly toxin ricin and what has appeared to be a drug deal gone bad now has turned into a federal case involving terrorism. Meanwhile, people in New York are dying from ricin due to purchasing products connected to the Battenberg plant. All the usual characters from this series are present, including Iowa DCI agent Hester Gorse and the dispatcher, Sally. The book actually begins with the finale where Carl, Hester, Sally, and George are holed up in a barn, outgunned and outmanned. Harstad alternates chapters with the investigation from the beginning and scenes from the barn until reaching the final, dramatic conclusion of the novel. At first, I found this confusing but soon I realized that this actually added to the story. I eagerly await Harstad's next Carl Houseman novel!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trouble comes to Nation County, Iowa., December 6, 2003

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Long December (Hardcover)

Carl Houseman is the deputy sheriff of Nation County, Iowa, and the laconic narrator of Donald Harstad's new thriller, "A Long December." Carl is also the department's senior investigator, and it is his job to figure out who shot an unidentified male, execution style, in a remote area called Frog Hollow. Was this death related to a drug deal gone sour? Working along with Iowa DCI agent Hester Gorse, Houseman finds out that this crime is just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg that may have national implications.

The main characters in "A Long December" are a likable bunch, and they have a matter-of-fact and businesslike attitude towards danger. Their dry humor and amiable camaraderie make them very easy to take. It is also refreshing to read a crime thriller that takes places in the nation's heartland rather than in a major metropolitan area.

One irritating aspect of this book, however, is the repeated shifting back and forth in time between a gun battle and the events that led up to the shootout. This dizzying flashback device is a needless annoyance that serves no dramatic purpose. Harstad would have done better in this case to have Houseman tell his story in a more linear manner.

Still, "A Long December" has much to recommend it. It raises some timely themes about our dangerous world and the men and women who risk their lives to defend us. The plot is complex and engrossing and the author provides some fascinating information about how investigations are conducted. It may not be flashy or glitzy, but "A Long December" gets the job done.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, But Was Rural Iowa Ever This Exiting?, November 15, 2003

By 

Mark K. Mcdonough "Mark McDonough" (Reston, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Long December (Hardcover)

I was an early fan of Harstad's series (he's a real-life lawman in NE Iowa), but he's facing the same problem as Archer Mayor, another real-life rural cop -- how in the heck do you write a series set in a place where, in real life, nothing much ever happens beyond domestic violence and drunk & disorderly?

For the most part, Mayor has concentrated on local color and a drawing a fine and very accurate portrait of low-life milltown New England. His mayhem has mostly remained realistic -- crooked real estate developers, out-of-control drug dealers, etc.

Harstad, on the other hand, has opted for extra-crunchy police procedure (one volume even has a glossary of 10-codes) and an ever escalating collection of improbable "hell comes to Ioway" scenarios. I won't give away anything, but let's just say this one is very post-9/11. I can't imagine how he'll top himself unless the next novel contains a Martian invasion.

The emphasis on bigger and better catastrophes has sorta moved the series halfway between police procedural and thriller. I still like them just fine, and Harstad remains an excellent writer, but I kinda wish he'd stopped at the "mysterious Satanic cult invades Iowa" level of improbability.

Other than that, the series remains quite consistent, including the fact that each story finds office Houseman barely coming home to sleep, and that his wife is encountered largely through notes she leaves on the fridge. The cast of continuing characters is still here, including "George of the Bureau" and the formidable dispatcher Sally, and Harstad still has a keen and funny eye for the absurdities of organizational politics.