The Homeplace

July 18, 2016
Wolf’s captivating if flawed debut won the 2015 Hillerman prize. Hometown hero Chase Ford returns to Brandon, Colo., to hunt some deer and ponder his future. Sixteen years earlier, Chase left Brandon a rising basketball star, but then a knee injury cut short his NBA career and earned him a prescription drug habit, which in turn destroyed his marriage. He’s hoping for a quiet visit, but on his arrival, someone murders high school basketball star Jimmy Riley. Shortly thereafter, Chase’s former coach is found dead and two other acquaintances go missing. Chase and two of his childhood friends, Deputy Marty Storm and game warden Birdie Hawkins, must catch the person terrorizing Brandon before Chase’s old rival, Sheriff Lincoln Kendall, can pin the crimes on him. Wolf spills too much ink on a tangential subplot, and the killer’s motivation is unearned, but vibrant prose, clever clues, and a keen sense of place carry readers through to a satisfying if convenient conclusion. Agent: Gina Panettieri, Talcott Notch Literary.

July 1, 2016
A star athlete whose life has fallen apart finds that there's still no place like home.Chase Ford, the star of his high school basketball team, won a free ride to college and played for the Lakers before an accident ruined his knee and his career and his dependence on pain pills ruined his marriage to a famous singer. Now he's paying a short visit to his hometown before he decides whether to accept the offer of an announcer's job. Despite his success with basketball and women, he can't shake his unhappy childhood. His mother was paralyzed in an accident, and his coldhearted father's liaison with the woman he hired to care for the house produced a child Chase has never met. His return coincides with the murders of Jimmie Riley, the star of the Brandon Buffalos basketball team, and of Chase's old coach. His high school nemesis, Sheriff Lincoln Kendall, is all too eager to tie Chase to those deaths. Chase, who's secretly been helping those in need by paying their tax bills and other debts, plans to arrange a college account for Dolly Benavidez, his half sister. He still has special friends from high school: Marty, now a sheriff's deputy; Birdie Hawkins, the game warden who always loved him; and Mercy Saylor, the high school beauty who played Chase and Kendall off against each other. Birdie, who generally has little time for the sheriff, points out a clue from the Riley crime scene: the print of a woman's size Tony Lama boot, not exactly rare in Colorado farm and ranch country. Chase must sort through numerous suspects and layers of hidden undercurrents if he's ever to resolve the conflicts in his life. A humdinger of a first novel that brings together several gripping storylines, an appealingly flawed hero, and an intimate sense of life in small-town America.

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September 1, 2016

Chase Ford left Brandon, CO, on a basketball scholarship and never looked back--until his life imploded. His career is on the downswing, thanks to a knee injury and a prescription drug habit, and his country music star wife is divorcing him amid rumors of domestic abuse. Chase returns home, where high school buddies Birdie Hawkins and Marty Storm now serve as the local game warden and deputy sheriff respectively. Also back in Brandon is Chase's old high school flame Mercy Saylor, who is interested in rekindling their romance. When Birdie is called to investigate the poaching of four bison, she also discovers the body of Jimmy Riley, a current high school basketball star. Then one of the most popular men in Brandon, Ford's former basketball coach, is also murdered. Sheriff Lincoln Kendall hates Chase and will do anything to pin the murders on him. VERDICT The elegant writing and clever plotting will carry readers through some unnecessary exposition. Winner of the 2015 Tony Hillerman Prize, this cross between a Western and a murder mystery will please Craig Johnson and C.J. Box aficionados. [Library marketing.]

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
Chase Ford, all six foot seven of him, was a high-school basketball star who won the games, slew the girls, and went on to the big-time, where things turned sour pronto. Knee injury, pills, divorce. Now he's back home in tiny Brandon, Colorado, dealing with the old crowd and something he hadn't intended. Three murders, all the victims connected to him one way or another: his old coach, the new basketball star, then Chase's half-sister. Author Wolf manages to mix a trip down memory lane with a lovely, old-fashioned whodunit. There's Chase's old pal Marty, now a lawman andperhapsan innocent bystander in this new mess. And Birdie, the overweight policewoman trying to hide her smoldering love for Chase. The cafe owner, Mercy, is similarly smitten. The obnoxious Kendall, Chase's bitter rival in the old days and now the pompous county sheriff, is certain Chase is up to something. Careful reading of clues leads to the unmasking of the killer, and confirms the observation that we really don't get over what happens to us in high school.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)