Customer Reviews

Six-Pound Walleye (Jake Hines Mysteries)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have enjoyed all of the Jake Hines books, but they are getting better. Even the first grabbed my interest and made me care for the various people in them, especially Jake, but I really can't wait for the next book now as I am involved in the lives of these folks. Jake has his problems, but he is stable, caring, and efficient. I like him! Keep up the good work, Ms Gunn.

We have a small boy who, standing at a bus stop in a group of other people, is shot dead. Nobody saw or heard anything. We have a high school, where World War III breaks out among the hockey players - and the son of police chief McCafferty in the midst of it. And we have Detective Jake Hines, who has trouble with his girl friend.

The book is well written, but brings nothing new or exiting. In a way, it just plods along until everything is solved - including the girl friend.

Having lived in the city she renamed "Rutherford" for more than 30 years, it was like a letter from home. I could visulize the locations and the buildings described. I even identified the town where Jake Hines lived in the old farm house. My graandson is a cop in Lake City, a real river town.
Besides all that, the plot was well concieved and carried out. I enjoyed it and passed it on to my daughter who still lives there.

By the time it is February in Minnesota, people begin to feel stir crazy from being cooped indoors by freezing weather. The Rutherford Police Department hates the month because people behave out of character and do ugly things.

This season two nasty incidents occur simultaneously. A riot explodes at the high school and most folks blame the son of the police chief for inciting it.

Across town, a young boy surrounded by other students and parents waits for the school bus to arrive. He suddenly keels over with no visible reason. Police Detective Jake Hines investigates and realizes someone shot the lad. No one heard a sound or saw the boy bleed. He quickly links the riot to the child's death, placing himself in danger.

This series has a down home country feel even if the tales are set in Minnesota. This superb police procedural stars a protagonist with appeal to all readers. The story line comes from recent headlines while leaving the older audience to wonder what is wrong with today's youth (they conveniently forget that their parents asked the same question about them). The social message is cleverly constructed within the plot so that fans will not feel as if Elizabeth Gunn is preaching to them.

Harriet Klausner

I loved this book. I much prefer police procedurals to "cozies," and this one lived up to my expectations. It is well written, the plot is engaging, and the author didn't feel she had to grab our attention with crude language or gratuitous gore. And don't forget the walleye! It didn't come 'til the end, but it was the most heartwarming part of the story.

It's not even close - geographically or literarily - to Ed McBain's fictionalized N. Y.C. Ms. Gunn's series is set in Rutherford, MN , which appears to be Rochester without Mayo (Clinic.) This is the first of this series I have read & it is merely "OK." I get the impression that Gunn is pandering to Howard Mohr's "How to Talk Minnesotan" and the Coen Bros. "Fargo" crowd, both of which are far better & more worth the time than this imitation. For cold climate crime-solving, I recommend instead Steve Hamilton's Alex McKnight series (U.P. MI) or Kathleen Taylor's Tory Bauer (S.D.)