Death Song (Kevin Kerney Series #11) » (Reprint)

Michael McGarrity is the author of the Anthony Award nominated Tularosa, as well as Mexican Hat, Serpent Gate, Hermit's Peak, The Judas Judge, Under the Color of Law, The Big Gamble, Everyone Dies, Slow Kill, and Nothing But Trouble. A former deputy sheriff for Santa Fe County, he established the first Sex Crimes Unit.

The bushwhack killing of a deputy sheriff in Lincoln County and the brutal murder of the deputy's wife in Santa Fe County bring Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his Mescalero Apache son, Sergeant Clayton Istee, back together. The double homicide investigation is soon linked to a major drug trafficking scheme and the cold-blooded slaughter of two women in Albuquerque.

Due to retire at the end of the month, Kerney calls upon Clayton to find the slain officer's son, discover what triggered the killings, and give him the ammunition he needs to bring a murderer to justice.

Publishers Weekly

McGarrity's solid eighth police procedural to feature Santa Fe County, N.Mex., police chief Kevin Kerney (after 2005's Nothing but Trouble) opens on a deceptively quiet note as Sgt. Clayton Istee of the Lincoln County sheriff's office breaks in the department's newest member, Deputy Tim Riley. A short time later, after someone blasts Riley in the face with a shotgun, Istee and Kerney must dig into Riley's past to identify possible murder suspects. The discovery of Riley's wife, Denise, with her throat slashed in a horse trailer complicates the investigation: autopsies reveal that Denise was three months pregnant and that Riley had a vasectomy. The author does a good job describing the characters and the locale, but some readers may be disappointed that a mundane if realistic piece of evidence fingers the killer. (Jan.)