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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 5, No. 33 |
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eagerly reviews the latest mystery involving horse vet Dr. Gail McCarthy FORGED |
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The corpse in her barn
gets the mystery going
By RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
Just about my favorite time of year is whenever the new mystery by Laura Crum comes out. This year the time is right now. Crum's eighth novel in the Dr. Gail McCarthy series--"Forged" (Thomas Dunne, $22.95)--is now available and I promise it won't disappoint you.
It all begins when Dr. McCarthy, a horse vet working in rural Santa Cruz County in northern California, comes home to find the man she hired to shoe one of her horses has only finished three hooves--and seems to have gone away somewhere. His truck is still there, his forge is still burning and Gunner, the horse, is still patiently waiting for his final shoe.
Gail is ticked--and for good reason. Dominic Castillo may be the best at his trade in the county, but the guy is really not dependable. What's more, he's one of those guys who's always coming on to a woman. Over the past couple of years, Castillo has ticked off lots of women like Gail, not to mention their husbands, boy-friends and significant others.
Then Gail finds Castillo in her barn--gut-shot and obviously dying. When she trys comforting him after calling for an ambulance, he tells her he was cleaning his pistol and accidentally shot himself. Sure enough, his gun is lying by his side. Before they can get him to the hospital, Castillo is dead.
As you may have surmised by now, something doesn't feel right about this. Why would Castillo suddenly decide to clean his gun in the middle of shoeing a horse? But if somebody else shot him, why would he cover for his own killer? Gail isn't the only one thinking such thoughts. The sheriff's office detective in charge also thinks the story is a phony--but he seems to think Gail made the whole thing up, perhaps after shooting the rat herself.
Once more, we're off on one of Dr. McCarthy's amazing adventures in crime-solving in good old Santa Cruz County, a place where stuff like this happens all the time. Take my word for it. That's my home territory and I used to be a police reporter there. Nothing Laura Crum puts in her novels ever seems the least bit incredible to me.
This time Gail finds herself smack dab in the middle of yet another murder investigation. Most of the suspects are in some way connected either to Castillo or to the horsey set he serviced, one way or another. There's the woman he's been living with, who may be tired of his "running aronnd" on her. There's also the ex-wife, who left him for another woman. Castillo had screwed her over royally, failing to give her child support payments. For that reason--and many others--the ex-wife's lesbian partner wasn't too fond of Castillo either. Then there's the illegitimate son, who may or may not be involved with illegal drug sales. Since he'll probably inherit a big chunk of Castillo's surprisingly large estate, he may have half a dozen motives for offing his old man. And there's also the ornery husband of the lady Castillo has been chasing lately. This is a man who mistreats his horses badly, so maybe murdering the guy who's been poking his wife behind his back just seems like justice to him.
Gail's involvement in the mystery of Castillo's death goes beyond the crime scene tape all around her barn. These are her clients and, in some cases, her friends, who are being treated as suspects, along with Gail herself.
As if she needed any other complications in her life, Gail has one really major one: Blue Winter, the man who's now sharing her cottage in the hills, has asked her to marry him.
As usual, Laura Crum has a deeply-involving storyline and strongly-credible characters. These are people you feel you've met before. She also is a master at rendering portraits of life in the Santa Cruz countryside. She captures the beauty of that coastal environment like nobody else who writes about it anywhere. Her idyllic picture of the serene setting along the Elkhorn Slough in the county's southern territory, where Blue makes his marriage proposal, makes you want to pack up and go find that place yourself. Pronto.
And the climax of "Forged," where Gail finds herself pursued by the killer, riding bareback on a strange horse in the middle of the night, is unrelentingly suspenseful. You'll also love her mysterious Mountain Dave, the bike racer hermit, who plays a key role in the mystery--and the climax. He's a special surprise you wouldn't believe if this story took place anywhere else but the Santa Cruz mountains.
The Gail McCarthy mysteries are published by Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin's Minotaur. They're handsome little hardcover books. This one has a beautiful cover designed by Nina Laricchia with an illustration by Stefano Vitale. You can't get Crum's novels in paperback, so don't wait. They come at a reasonable price compared to most popular novels today. Amazon.com sells them online for $16.07 plus shipping costs. They're one of the few remaining bargains in the mystery world.
Laura Crum is a top-flight mystery writer. If you miss the equestrian mysteries of the great Dick Francis since he retired from the game, try Laura Crum. She's the only one out there who even comes close to being another Dick Francis.
©2004 by Ron Miller.
The cover illustrration is courtesy of 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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