Arizona Dreams

June 5, 2006
Retired professor David Mapstone once again brings a historian's touch to his job as Phoenix deputy sheriff in Talton's smartly plotted fourth adventure (after 2004's Dry Heat
). Nothing appears to link the ice-pick murder of lawyer Alan Cordesman in David's neighborhood with a body in the desert that turns out to be that of landowner Harry Bell. Months later, David starts connecting the dots when Harry's brother, Louis, also turns up with an ice pick through his skull, and David's supposed former student, who originally directed him to the location of the body in the desert, proves to be Dana Earley, wife of Tom Earley, Maricopa county supervisor and chief critic of the sheriff's department, run by David's prickly boss, Mike Peralta. David also links the Earleys to Arizona Dreams, a massive new development with one major problem: it has no water supply, a requisite in Arizona. But the Bell land does. While much of this is familiar territory, Talton crisply evokes Phoenix's New West ambience and keeps readers guessing with unexpected plot twists.

August 15, 2006
Dave Mapstone is a historian -turned -deputy sheriff writing a book about the cases he has worked on since returning to Phoenix. He also teaches at the local university and tries his hand at solving cold cases, like the 40-year-old murder confession that uncovers a fresh corpse and that may be tied to a proposed housing development. Talton, the author of three other Mapstone mysteries ("Concrete Dreams", "Camelback Falls", and "Dry Heat") and a fourth-generation Arizonan, captures the frenzied state of mindless land development that threatens to overwhelm the Southwest today.

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