Deadly Developments

After composing seven Jake Hines mysteries set in Minnesota, her
former home, novelist Elizabeth Gunn got herself a new heroine in her
current hometown of Tucson: hard-line homicide detective Sarah
Burke.

Burke came onto the scene in last year’s Cool in Tucson; she
forges ahead in Gunn’s latest police procedural, New River
Blues. And so does Gunn: The author hit her stride in the middle of
the Jake Hines series, and she’s shown no signs of slowing down. In
fact, it’s safe to say she’s better than ever in the efficient,
exciting New River Blues.

As usual with Gunn, the action begins right away. In the first
chapter, we’re invited to a boozy, high-society party at a tony home in
El Encanto Estates. A young ex-con named Pauly, new to Tucson and
working informally for a small catering company, is surprised to find
himself seduced by the ebullient hostess. The two go to bed, but do not
make it to the next morning, as someone shoots them both in the middle
of the night. When the case is turned over to Sarah Burke, she
discovers that the deceased hostess, Eloise Henderson, is a member of
the ultra-rich Della Maggio family—and that her developer
husband, Roger, might have been having some money trouble.

In a parallel narrative, we learn that another young ex-con working
for the catering company, Nico, has awakened the day after the murder
with a suspicion that he was perhaps involved in the killing of Pauly,
his best friend. Too hungover to remember anything clearly, he makes a
dash for safety, from the cops and from the sinister crowd that got him
involved in the shady “catering” business in the first place.
Meanwhile, Sarah begins her investigation of Roger Henderson, who
proves to be brusque, blustery and more than a little defensive. A
developer who builds tract housing in the desert, he’s been squeezed by
the subprime bust; to make matters worse, it seems his wife had been
cheating on him for some time.

Those picking up from the last book will be pleased to find that
Sarah is in a steady relationship with fellow officer Will Dietz. She’s
smitten with him and with her work, but she’s having a bit of a rough
go at home otherwise: Her drug-addicted sister, Janine, is AWOL, and
Janine’s pre-teen daughter, Denny, is living with Sarah in a state of
permanent anxiety about her missing mother. And as the Henderson murder
mystery grows more complex, Sarah finds herself coming home to Denny
and the rest of her personal life later and later each night.

Gunn is getting better and better. She’s always had the
police-procedural basics down; she clearly loves the details of
investigative work and manages to thrill detective wannabes with plenty
of inside-the-department scenes, complete with hard-line
interrogations, roving data-collection geeks and piled-up paperwork.
But she never lets the seriousness overwhelm the general lightness of
her tale; the book is often downright hilarious. It’s the supporting
cast of officers that makes New River Blues especially fun:
There’s the blustering sergeant Delaney, who manages his staff with a
manic energy; the car-obsessed Cifuentes, who had something of a
dalliance with Eloise Henderson himself; and the attractive Menendez,
so good-looking and flirtatious that Sarah worries he’ll seduce a key
figure in the investigation.

Several other side characters flit in and out of the book. There’s
the young actress Felicity, desperate to become a star and willing to
do anything—even conceal a crime—to make enough money to
move to Los Angeles; Patricia Henderson, Eloise’s daughter, hateful of
the cops at first but ultimately pleased to have them on her side; and
frustrated caterer Zack, kicked out of the military after going haywire
in Iraq and ready to take revenge on the “civilians” that he detests
just as much as the “ragheads” he fought in the Gulf. Each character is
finely crafted and full of surprises; Gunn seems to have a good time
making them more complex than they initially seem. This can
occasionally backfire, though: Here and there, she jumps a little too
quickly among perspectives, and occasionally, the character details can
seem unnecessarily tangential.

But this is just a minor flaw in an otherwise gleaming effort.
New River Blues is perfect for first-time Gunn readers and will
more than satisfy those who have been with the author since her Hines
days. Sarah Burke and her motley crew of officers can’t come back soon
enough; fortunately, given Gunn’s quick pace and obvious enthusiasm,
it’s unlikely she’ll keep us waiting for long.

This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.