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Summary
Summary
When a former student turns up in David Mapstone's office, she seems to have the perfect case for this history-professor-turned-deputy: a letter left by her deceased father, confessing to a forty-year-old murder and providing directions to the body. But things are never what they seem in Phoenix, a fast-buck city of newcomers seeking fresh starts from sometimes dark pasts. Just ask David's wife, Deputy Lindsey Faith Mapstone. One morning the start of the Willo District home tour is interrupted by murder. A man lies dead with an ice pick in his brain. And Lindsey runs right into her half-sister Robin among the crowd gathering in the historic Phoenix neighborhood, the sister Lindsey hasn't seen in years. The reunion with Robin rekindles memories about their rough upbringing and the deep rift that they may, or may not, bridge. Why is Robin here now? David has his own problems. There's a body in the desert, right where the letter said it would be found. But it's weeks old, not years. And the "former student" who brought in the letter has disappeared. When David finally locates her, she turns out to be a sham, the wife of a politician with a vendetta against Mapstone's boss, Sheriff Mike Peralta. But what's her agenda? And then even fresher bodies turn up, the clues keep pointing back to the same remote piece of desert and a seemingly unconnected real-estate development called Arizona Dreams. But Mapstone knows something sinister is fueling this increasingly dangerous case....
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Retired professor David Mapstone once again brings a historian's touch to his job as Phoenix deputy sheriff in Talton's smartly plotted fourth adventure (after 2004's Dry Heat). Nothing appears to link the ice-pick murder of lawyer Alan Cordesman in David's neighborhood with a body in the desert that turns out to be that of landowner Harry Bell. Months later, David starts connecting the dots when Harry's brother, Louis, also turns up with an ice pick through his skull, and David's supposed former student, who originally directed him to the location of the body in the desert, proves to be Dana Earley, wife of Tom Earley, Maricopa county supervisor and chief critic of the sheriff's department, run by David's prickly boss, Mike Peralta. David also links the Earleys to Arizona Dreams, a massive new development with one major problem: it has no water supply, a requisite in Arizona. But the Bell land does. While much of this is familiar territory, Talton crisply evokes Phoenix's New West ambience and keeps readers guessing with unexpected plot twists. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
It's a tough few days for Phoenix deputy David Mapstone. He's first on the scene when his neighbor is found with an ice pick in his brain. As he's leaving the scene with his wife--also a deputy but specializing in computer forensics--her stepsister steps out of the crowd to introduce herself. This would be the stepsister his wife never mentioned. In short order, a former student--Mapstone was a history professor after his first stint in law enforcement--asks him to investigate a 40-year-old murder committed by her late father, who buried the victim in the Phoenix desert. A trip to the site reveals a body, but a fresh one. When more bodies start turning up in the desert, Mapstone wonders if they all may be connected to a new upscale development known as Arizona Dreams. The fourth entry in the Mapstone series is as engaging as its predecessors. Talton weaves a couple of primary plot threads with parallel personal narratives, and the resulting synergy produces a more suspenseful tale and a satisfyingly multidimensional protagonist. Make this your Arizona series of choice. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Dave Mapstone is a historian-turned-deputy sheriff writing a book about the cases he has worked on since returning to Phoenix. He also teaches at the local university and tries his hand at solving cold cases, like the 40-year-old murder confession that uncovers a fresh corpse and that may be tied to a proposed housing development. Talton, the author of three other Mapstone mysteries (Concrete Dreams, Camelback Falls, and Dry Heat) and a fourth-generation Arizonan, captures the frenzied state of mindless land development that threatens to overwhelm the Southwest today. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.