‘Wild Instinct’ by T. Jefferson Parker; Minotaur; 336 pages; $29
Edgar Award winner T. Jefferson Parker’s hard-hitting novels combine smart police procedurals with characters who are battling criminals as much as their own demons. While that combination is a well-known trope in mysteries, Parker makes each novel fresh and energetic. And California is a well-known terrain for mysteries, but Parker generally explores the state’s Orange County and its environs, sometimes dipping down to Mexico.
The sharply plotted “Wild Instinct” launches a new series about former Marine Lew Gale, who is now an Orange County sheriff’s detective. His skills as an expert sniper in Afghanistan and his background as a hunter often are called on. Lew doesn’t want his latest assignment — hunting down a mountain lion that may have killed prominent real-estate developer Bennet Tarlow, whose body was found on land his family had donated for a vast wilderness park.
Lew uses his instincts about the wild to let the lion escape, believing it’s too old to have killed. He’s right. Bennet was shot. Lew and his new partner, Daniela Mendez, now have a different investigation.
Bennet “was a social creature,” frequently photographed in glossy magazines; a bachelor who dated a lot; a man who seemingly had many friends. But “a guy with that much money and power” has to have enemies, reflects Daniela.
Lew has a history with the Tarlow family. He had worked part time for them years prior and had a favorable impression of them. Bennet “was a nice guy,” Lew remembers.
The investigation leads back to the Tarlows’ recent land plans. Lew’s views about the family are tainted when it’s learned a huge development is being planned on land connected to the Indigenous Acjachemen tribe, from which Lew is descended.
Ancestral land being co-opted by developers has become a common theme, but Parker handles it with aplomb, bringing a sophisticated approach to “Wild Instinct” that readers have come to expect from him. Lew and Daniela emerge immediately as three-dimensional characters. And the Southern California atmosphere seeps through each aspect of the book, from the outdoors to neighborhoods and inside homes.
Parker has another solid series with “Wild Instinct.”
LOTS OF SCOTTISH LORE
‘Murder at the Scottish Games’ by Traci Hall; Kensington; 304 pages; $17.95
Sports can bring out the best — and just as often — the worst in people. The stakes are tripled, and the score even more important, when the sport is wrapped up in tradition, history and family reputation, as is the case in Traci Hall’s lively “Murder at the Scottish Games.”
Hall keeps her light plot churning with bits of humor, a town filled with suspects and lots of Scottish lore.
The Highland Games have come to Nairn, Scotland, and that’s good news for local businesses, especially for Paislee Shaw, who owns a sweater and yarn shop. It’s almost as if Paislee is printing money the way tourists are shopping in her Cashmere Crush store. For extra help, Paislee hires Rhona Smythe, whose salary will go to her parents to pay off her many speeding tickets.
Everyone in Nairn seems to have Highland Games fever. The new dog-herding event is expected to be a big hit. Rhona is in the Highland Dance and her boyfriend, Artie Whittle, is participating in several events, including the caber toss, in which he will throw a tapered log measuring about 16 feet long. Nothing could go wrong there — until someone tampers with the log. A fatality and rumors of steroid use put a damper on the event.
A strength of “Murder at the Scottish Games” is how Hall makes Paislee’s involvement as an amateur sleuth organic to the plot. Paislee’s instincts and eye for detail go further than matching yarn colors. Her home life, including her grumpy grandfather and brooding 13-year-old son Brody, and her interest in D.I. Mack Zeffer add to the believable story.
Hall’s view of Scotland, punctuated by occasional bits of dialect, will make readers want to book a trip there.
Meet the author
Traci Hall will discuss “Murder at the Scottish Games” with author Patrick Kendrick at 2 p.m. Nov. 22 in the Rubel Mystery Collection at the Pompano Beach Branch Library, 50 W. Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach. The event is free, and books will be available for sale, with 10% of sales donated to the library. Call 954-357-7643.
The following day, Hall is scheduled for a meet-and-greet at Barnes & Noble, 2051 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, starting at 2 p.m. Call 954-561-3732.
For more information, visit TraciHall.com.
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