All the Dead Lie Down

March 30, 1998
While napping under the deck of an Austin, Tex., restaurant, a homeless woman called Cow Lady is awakened by talk overhead of a lethal gas soon to be released in the Texas State Capitol building. From there, Walker switches to the Capitol building, where Molly Cates, an investigative reporter last seen in Under the Beetle's Cellar (1995), is working on a story about the upcoming vote on a handgun bill. Cates runs into the man who had been sheriff when her father died 25 years earlier. Although her father's death by gunshot was judged suicide, Cates has never given up her belief that he was murdered and that the sheriff suppressed evidence of the crime. She's determined to resume her intensive personal investigation, despite the advice of her lover (who is also her former husband) and old family friends, including a state senator and his wife. Cates is out of town when a homeless woman--not Cow Lady but wearing Cow Lady's black and white coat--is murdered. From its compelling beginning to the extended conclusion, which moves from the depths of a garbage dump to the Capitol, Walker conjures a memorable, disparate cast. Only a few seams show as she connects the political conspiracy, the homeless community and the unexpected--and entirely satisfying--explanation for the death of Cates's father.

This installment in Walker's series of books featuring Molly Cates focuses on a complicated plot that interweaves her personal quest to understand her father's "suicide" almost 30 years ago with a present-day plot about gun-control fanatics, the homeless and other political goings-on. C.J. Critt works hard to make the draw. Her characters are rich and distinct; particularly vivid are the various homeless, men and women. Critt draws out the complexity of their characters and their interactions with one another, as well as with the main characters and the twists in the plot. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine