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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 4, No. 17 |
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Laura Crum's HAYBURNER |
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Firebug poses mystery
for vet Gail McCarthy
By RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
It all begins with a fire in Santa Cruz County's biggest commercial horse stable facility on one of those troublesome days when veterinarian Gail McCarthy is on call for emergencies all by herself. And if you know what usually happens when Gail pulls one of those shifts, you'll also know you're in for an absorbing read.
As a matter of fact, that's the usual drill when it comes to Laura Crum's wonderful mystery novels featuring the perserverant Ms. McCarthy--a vet who really cares about the horses she treats. That's why she often goes way beyond the call of duty to help stop the twisted people who seem to congregate in her neck of the woods, causing misery and pain to horses and more often than not also leaving a trail of dead human bodies as well.
Crum knows horses extremely well, which is why she's fast becoming the favorite mystery writer of all those readers who sorely miss the now retired Dick Francis, former king of the equinary mystery writers. Though she's not a veterinarian in real life, she spends lots of time schmoozing with them because she actually owns horses very much like the ones Gail McCarthy owns in her novels--and lives in what seems to be the same house McCarthy inhabits in the rolling hills of the real Santa Cruz County on California's central coast.
In the new novel, "Hayburner" (Thomas Dunne, $22.95) Gail is called to treat horses rescued from a barn fire at the Bishop ranch, a spot well-known to Crum's regular readers. The horse facility is run by creepy Bart Bishop, a ladies' man who's as arrogant as his brother Clay is thoughtful and caring. Somebody torched the place, killing several horses boarded there by community horselovers and injuring several more/
This turns out to be just the first of several stable fires that the police brand as the work of an arsonist. One by one the suspects start to turn up, among them: John Romero, a brooding young vet who has joined the practice Gail McCarthy shares with Dr. Jim Leonard; Hans Schmidt, the new rival vet in town, who hates horse-boarding facilities and believes all horses should run free on large plots of land, and a mysterious character who seems to turn up at all the fires, getting excited by the flames and general chaos.
McCarthy really doesn't need another mystery to solve at this time of her life. She has enough grief trying to reconcile her strong feelings for the two men in her life--Clay Bishop and his chief rival, the manly, romantic Blue Winter. Let me stir up things a little by telling you that one of these guys is very much out of the picture by the end of "Hayburner" while the other is firmly ensconced as Gail's man.
Gail McCarthy doesn't so much function as a detective in Crum's novels, but as a woman whose curiousity and concern for others constantly places her in the path of danger as, clue by clue, she forms her own opinion about who the guilty party might be.
This time she comes awfully close to getting too close to the culprit--and winds up in serious jeopardy. As usual, Crum gives us a breakneck pace for the final exciting chapters--and a genuine surprise ending.
Crum's equine novels aren't just engrossing thrillers, though. They're also packed with information about the world of veterinary medicine, especially the brand practiced by those vets who specialize in large animals. I was born and raised in Crum's home territory and can attest to the authenticity of nearly everything she puts down on those fast-turning pages.
Each new book tells us
more about the emotional makeup of this very appealing woman--and
"Hayburner" is a treasure chest of new stuff about
Dr. McCarthy. This is a grand series in the best tradition of
the mystery and "Hayburner" shouldn't be missed by
anyone who loves horses, mystery and hot-looking single female
vets.
©2003 by Ron Miller.
The Ron Miller caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The book
cover reproduction is ©2003 by Thomas Dunne books.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
teaches classes in mystery and related topics at Whatcom Community
College and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
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