Astride a Pink Horse

January 9, 2012
Greer takes a break from his well-crafted CJ Floyd series (First of State, etc.) with this so-so post–cold war mystery. When the body of retired African-American Air Force Master Sgt. Thurmond Giles is found hanging by ankle chains in an abandoned missile silo near Wheatland, Wyo., wealthy, ambitious Freddy Dames, publisher of the Web’s Digital Registry News, assigns reporter Elgin “Cozy” Coseia to the story. Maj. Bernadette Cameron, an ex-fighter pilot, investigates the security breach involved. Giles’s dual expertise in nuclear-missile warheads and seducing women provides avenues to explore, as does the possibility that Giles’s murder was a hate crime. Among the suspects are antinuke protesters, including WWII U.S. internment camp survivor Kimiko Takata and her 42-year-old cousin, Rikia, who likes to re-enact WWII air battles with model airplanes. Bernadette and Cozy click for a climactic chase after which the plot creaks to an unsatisfying denouement.

Starred review from February 1, 2012

When a retired Air Force missile technician is found dead and mutilated on a restricted military site in remote Wyoming, Air Force Major Bernadette Cameron and Denver-based reporter Elgin "Cozy" Coseia are among the first to arrive on the scene. The victim, African American Thurmond Giles, had cut quite a wide swath during his tenure; it's hard to decide whether the murder was a hate crime or an act of personal revenge. A crowd of suspects emerges: two former lovers, a Japanese American family with deep anger about World War II, a disgruntled rancher, and a wronged husband. Bernadette, granddaughter of a Tuskegee airman, and somewhat of a maverick, keeps tripping over Cozy until they decide to work together on the case. Things heat up quickly, because the killer has bigger plans ahead. VERDICT Greer takes a new direction from his popular series character, C.J. Floyd (Blackbird, Farewell), and I hope Bernadette and Cozy will be back soon. The refreshingly eccentric cast and elaborately structured plot make for an engrossing tale. Think Elmore Leonard, Brad Parks, and Craig Johnson.

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