Customer Reviews

Pariah: A Kurt Muller Mystery

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Politically ambitious Ben Smerlas heats up his campaign to remove Kurt Muller from being Aspen's sheriff because he knows that this is a perfect stepping stone to a House seat. A desperate Kurt Muller agrees to do almost anything to abort the politically motivated voter recall. Knowing how close the vote is and encouraged by his attorney, Kurt attends a charity benefit in which society's ladies are bidding on a date with him. Wealthy recluse Nicole Bauer bids ten thousand dollars to gain the evening with Kurt.

Nicole informs Kurt that she is the recipient of death threats that she insists comes from former rock star Rocky Rhodes, who died two decades ago. Nicole was the prime suspect in Rocky's death, but she beat the rap. The next day, Nicole is lying dead at the bottom of the nearby cliff eerily as Rocky did twenty years ago.. In spite of the negative publicity associated with Nicole, Kurt begins to investigate her death. He soon finds a link between Rocky,s band and many of the elite of Aspen. However, his new-found knowledge places more than a job in jeopardy as an unknown assailant wants to add the sheriff to the death list.

PARIAH is a very entertaining police procedural that will leave readers feeling a Rocky Mountain high. The story line intermingles Kurt,s personal problems with a well-designed investigation that requires the sheriff to work it. A sprinkling of jocularity makes the characters seem more human even as it eases the growing tension. The myriad of suspects all contains viable motives and means as the plot twists and turns with every new discovery. With novels like this one, Thomas Zigel will gain many zealous fans.

Harriet Klausner

Tom Zigal has written real joy ride of a mystery novel with Pariah (the third installment in the Kurt Muller series). He has crafted a tightly woven story that includes aging hippies, rock groupies turned yuppies, greedy developers, burned-out rock n' rollers, conniving politicians, ghosts of rock stars past, New Age Buddhists and Aspen social climbers in a plot that has more twists than the mountain roads that he describes. Zigal has a real feel for Aspen and the surrounding country. This book is a lot of fun to read

Politically ambitious Ben Smerlas heats up his campaign to remove Kurt Muller from being Aspen's sheriff because he knows that this is a perfect stepping stone to a House seat. A desperate Kurt Muller agrees to do almost anything to abort the politically motivated voter recall. Knowing how close the vote is and encouraged by his attorney, Kurt attends a charity benefit in which society's ladies are bidding on a date with him. Wealthy recluse Nicole Bauer bids ten thousand dollars to gain the evening with Kurt.

Nicole informs Kurt that she is the recipient of death threats that she insists comes from former rock star Rocky Rhodes, who died two decades ago. Nicole was the prime suspect in Rocky's death, but she beat the rap. The next day, Nicole is lying dead at the bottom of the nearby cliff eerily as Rocky did twenty years ago.. In spite of the negative publicity associated with Nicole, Kurt begins to investigate her death. He soon finds a link between Rocky,s band and many of the elite of Aspen. However, his new-found knowledge places more than a job in jeopardy as an unknown assailant wants to add the sheriff to the death list.

PARIAH is a very entertaining police procedural that will leave readers feeling a Rocky Mountain high. The story line intermingles Kurt,s personal problems with a well-designed investigation that requires the sheriff to work it. A sprinkling of jocularity makes the characters seem more human even as it eases the growing tension. The myriad of suspects all contains viable motives and means as the plot twists and turns with every new discovery. With novels like this one, Thomas Zigel will gain many zealous fans.

Harriet Klausner

Thomas Zigal's books evoke the wild beauty of the Colorado Rockies while gently mocking the glitz and artifice of Aspen's weathy elite. His characters are well-rounded, the plots are articulate and interesting, and his writing is lively and articulate (high praise from a voracious reader who bemoans the grammar faux pas of so many of today's popular writers).

To state that one is being stalked by someone one was accused of killing two decades ago is odd. To turn up dead anyway is flat out bizarre. "Pariah" is the story of Sheriff Kurt Muller as he investigates the conundrum of Nicole Bauer and her relationship with Rocky Rhodes - a man who died twenty years earlier. Nicole claims Rocky is after her despite this impossibility and soon turns up dead; the rap is placed on Kurt. To clear his own name, he has to dig to the bottom of this enigma. "Pariah" is an intriguing mystery-thriller all the way through, and a top pick for community library collections.

The 1960s wouldn't have been complete without super blues idol Rocky Rhodes. He was the greatest blues musician to ever live. That is until his unfortunate death in Aspen, where he fell through a deck railing onto the rocks below. But that was twenty years ago. Nicole Bauer, his abused lover, was tried for murder. Now Nicole is receiving threatening phone calls and letters from a voice she recognizes: Rocky!

And so is the premise for Thomas Zigal's new Kurt Muller mystery, Pariah. Nicole lures Sheriff Kurt Muller to her tucked-away mansion in the mountains to help her stop Rocky from tormenting her. She is convinced it's him. After all, would anyone else have his ring; the ring he was wearing when his body was stolen from the morgue and cremated in Arizona? Not likely!

Kurt, facing a recall vote, doesn't believe Nicole, but soon he spots a cadaver-like shadow that may just turn out to be Rocky. The voice, the hair, the ring. These things add up. The key to the whole ghost/apparition seem to lie in Nicole and Rocky's past and a woman with a butterfly tattoo named Mariah, whom Rocky often referred to as Pariah.

Zigal's character development is flawless and his execution of the plot is equally superb. As well as a five-star mystery, Zigal, a Texan, does a great job with the details of the Colorado Rockies, snow and all. I loved the snow. The writing is taut and tingling.

I must admit that I snuck the Pariah into my office to snatch a few precious minutes of reading time-and I read the entire novel in less than twenty-four hours. I was sure Rocky had somehow faked his own death way back when and was now ready for vengeance. There was one little clue that was rather jarring, but I didn't figure this first-class who-done-it until the very end.

Armchair Interviews says: This book has it all-good story, characters and storytelling.