Mexican Hat

McGarrity served in the Santa Fe Sheriff's Department. His protagonist, ex-detective Kevin McKerney, did, too. Both retired from the SFSD and remained in New Mexico--McGarrity writing mysteries for McKerney. George Guidall lends dignity to the limping, 40-something, would-be rancher, who has taken a summer job as a forest ranger. Guidall enlivens the innumerable characters involved in a sixty-year-old family feud, a militia movement, Mexican-American issues, small-town politics and more. He adds dimension to flat characters. His renderings of the stunning landscapes evoke the author's love of the Southwest, luring listeners to the story with the setting. The plot's complexity, more than the people, continues the enticement. R.N. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 28, 1997
McGarrity delivers on the promise of his accomplished debut in Tularosa (1996) with his second Kevin Kerney novel. A large cast of tough, believable characters brings life to a complex, action-filled plot that combines animal poaching, smuggling and the activities of present-day anti-environmentalists in the West with cattle theft and land-grabbing during the Depression. Kevin is working temporarily for the Forest Service in western New Mexico's Gila Wilderness. While tracing a missing tagged cougar with Fish and Game Department officer Jim Stiles, Kevin discovers a dying elderly Mexican tourist, Jose Padilla, and Jose's murdered grandson, Hector. The sheriff and Assistant DA Karen Cox ask Kevin to investigate. The physical attraction between Kevin and Karen is cooled by their discovery of an old relationship between the Padillas and Karen's father, Edgar, and his twin, her uncle Eugene, who have been feuding for 60 years. The plot intensifies: Jim is ambushed, Kevin's trailer is bombed, they jeopardize an FBI undercover operation while seeking an elusive wildlife smuggler. Luck and good police work, however, lead them to the links among the murders, missing animals and the Coxes. Although McGarrity sets up some eyebrow-raising coincidences (as a teenager, Kevin beat Karen's cousin in a rodeo competition), he ingeniously orchestrates character, place, action, history and relationships into another outstanding novel. Author tour.