Concrete Desert (David Mapstone Mysteries) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The storms don't come into the city anymore..." (more)
Key Phrases: Bobby Hamid, Rebecca Stokes, Greg Townsend (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One good thing you can say about this pedestrian-plotted, clich‚-ridden debut is that the narrator, Phoenix-born cop turned college history teacher David Mapstone, knows an interesting historical anecdote when he hears one. Tales of the rise of Phoenix, Ariz., from provincial city (with a small-town feel) to blighted metropolis are the best parts of the book. Unfortunately, Talton's familiarity with the city's history is no compensation for his over-familiarity with the conventions of the mystery novel. After being denied tenure for his resistance to "non-linearity," Mapstone returns to the Phoenix force as a consultant on long-unsolved cases. His latest assignment is the 40-year-old discovery of a young woman strangled in the desert. Her death matches a series of such murders that occurred at the time. Legend has it these were the work of the unseen, unapprehended "Creeper," whose nefarious deeds ceased as mysteriously as they began. Was the woman a victim of Phoenix's first serial killer? Mapstone's investigation is interrupted by the appearance of an old flame, his first true love. She appeals to him to help find her sister, who has disappeared. Need we add that the two cases wend their way to homicide? Talton is a competent writer. His idea of a historian-detective investigating old cases is an excellent one, and his historical anecdotes are genuinely interesting. But the plotting and the characters are just too historical. (July 9)Forecast: Dry.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In order to make ends meet, David Mapstone teaches history and researches an unsolved, 40-year-old murder case for the Phoenix sheriff's office. Serendipitously, the old murder of the then-governor's niece shows unnerving similarities to the recent disappearance and murder of his college lover's younger sister. Could both murders be the work of the same person? Could the governor's family be involved, or could the murders be attributable to serial murderers? Clean prose, complex characters, changing scenery, and an intriguing mix of past and present crime keep the pages turning. This first in a new series by an experienced Arizona journalist is recommended for fans of Southwestern mysteries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; US trade ed edition (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590583779
• ISBN-13: 978-1590583777
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #575,650 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Strong Debut--Hope To See More Mapstone Mysteries!, July 2, 2001

By	Craig Larson (Maple Grove, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Concrete Desert: A David Mapstone Mystery (David Mapstone Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I read a couple of books over the weekend and had a good time with both, but the real find, for me, was Jon Talton's _Concrete Desert_, the debut of his character David Mapstone.

Mapstone holds a PhD in history and is in-between academic jobs, working part-time as a deputy for the sheriff's department in Phoenix. His job is to pull old, unsolved cases from the files and see if he can't put together some new leads. At the same time, he's approached by an old girlfriend, to pull some strings and see if he can find a lead on her missing sister. When his search for the sister begins to entangle itself with a 40-year-old unsolved murder, which might have been the work of a serial killer called "the Creeper," Mapstone begins to receive threats on his life.

Talton does a great job with setting here, bringing Phoenix and the 100+ degree summer heat to convincing life. Also, the historical research that his detective must do adds a fascinating touch to the novel and allows for quite a bit of comparison between the old city and the new one, which is growing at the rate of an acre of desert being taken over by development every hour. This historical digging into old cases is a neat idea for a fictional detective/mystery series and should lead to many more interesting future novels.

Talton also does a good job of creating some background characters, such as Mapstone's boss/mentor, Chief Deputy Mike Peralta, and a love interest, Lindsay Adams, who works in the records department. Both are characters we want to know more about and will, I hope, feature in future David Mapstone mysteries. A very promising debut!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting police procedural, June 21, 2001

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Concrete Desert: A David Mapstone Mystery (David Mapstone Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Because he was politically incorrect, Professor David Mapstone failed to attain tenure at San Diego State or obtain a job at his alma mater Arizona State. He return to his hometown of Phoenix to accept a job at the sheriff's office working cold but open cases. He also teaches an American History course at the local college.

Maricopa County Chief Deputy Mike Perralta, David's former partner when he worked as a cop, assigns the professor with the 1959 Rebecca Stokes murder. At the same time, David's first girlfriend Julie Riding, who dumped him twenty years, ago asks for his help in finding her missing sister Phaedra. On the Stokes case, David links the murder with four similar killings. When the police find the corpse of Phaedra, David sees the same pattern as he found in the Stokes inquiry. David wonders if the killer is a three-decade old copycat, the original "Creeper" back on line, or an attempt to hide the homicide within a serial investigation?

CONCRETE DESERT is an exciting, very entertaining police procedural with a slight twist in that the main character is not a law enforcement official. The story line is fun as the complex David feels genuine and the law enforcement side of the cast provides further depth to his character. Though Julie and the suspects seem two-dimensional, they do not take away from a wonderful investigative tale.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Phoenix - Crime Clouds a Sunbelt City, January 19, 2003

By	Theodore A. Rushton (PHOENIX, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Concrete Desert: A David Mapstone Mystery (David Mapstone Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Not bad for a first novel.

Granted, this book will be a shock for innocent Easterners who think of Phoenix (and other Southwestern cities) as clean modern places free of the drugs and street crime that plague old cities of the Rust Belt and East Coast.

Fact: most "East Coast" drugs are imported, much through cities such as Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque and El Paso. Fact: along with the smuggling of illegal aliens, drug's are a bloody and heartless business. Fact: Crime in Phoenix is almost double the rate for New York city, and property crime is more than double. Fact: culturally, Phoenix is still a cow town, but now it is also a high crime town.

Talton bases his story on these facts, presenting a hard-boiled story of crime and corruption in Phoenix. It is a story that is almost ignored by the daily press, which provides Talton with his day job; Talton is one of the first writers to fictionalize the reality of "the good life" in the sunshine of the Southwest. If you want a up-to-date factual account of the drug business along the US-Mexico border, look up Tucson author Charles Bowden.

Supposedly a fourth generation Arizonan, he's sometimes sloppy on easy to check facts, such as asserting Arizona had about 50,000 people when it became a state in 1912. The fact is closer to 200,000 by 1910. He offers a common theme that explosive growth has destroyed the old time atmosphere, apparently unaware that Arizona almost doubled in population in the decade preceding statehood. Yet, this whining about the passing of the "good ol' days" is a prevalent theme, the excuse used by long time residents to justify doing little or nothing about current problems.

It's an ideal setting for Talton's fictional investigator, failed history professor David Mapstone who's returned to Phoenix and been hired on a free-lance basis by an old friend in the Sheriff's Office. His job? Investigate old unsolved crimes, and see if he can come up with something new. It provides him with a job as a sworn sheriff's deputy and a license to do pretty much as he wants, including hot-dogging as a lone-wolf investigator of recent murders.

The principle villains, of course, are an Iranian immigrant and a corrupt politician. It's a nice bit of politically correct typecasting. The politician is vanquished, of course, but the Iranian villain lives on to generate villainy for future novels. If this sounds strange, keep in mind that of the last four elected governors of Arizona one was impeached and removed from office, another resigned after being indicted for criminal fraud and eventually pardoned by President Bill Clinton, whom he had never failed to denounce while in office.

Although the book is fiction, nothing Talton writes about is implausible in Phoenix or Arizona. That's what makes it so interesting; he's a wide-eyed innocent in pursuit of a good story, largely unaware of the cynicism of crime, politics and opportunism in Arizona. After all, too much of a good thing -- or bad thing, as the case may be -- tends to make fiction unreal. Talton manages a nice enough balance to create a fast-paced story.

All in all, it's a good introduction to the real Phoenix.

The Chamber of Commerce isn't going to like his books; but then, the Chamber and its blindness to problems is one reason the crime rate is so high. Perhaps if Talton can make a series out of these books, he'll generate enough heat and controversy that the police and sheriff's office will make an effort to clean up some of the persistent crime.

But then, in Phoenix old timers always found it easier to ignore or cover-up rather than confront problems. Talton, or his alter ego Mapstone, is an exception to that old habit. It provides the foundation for what should be a good series of books, and an intriguing unraveling of the social problems of the area.

This book is a good start on what could become a fascinating series. His second book, "Camelback Falls," is even better. Let's hope he continues improving, and that he finds a growing audience interesting in learning about the real Phoenix behind the stucco and red-tile roofed facade of precocious respectability.