Burning Meredith

May 11, 2015
Burgeoning agri-economic growth and a spate of petty crimes concern the residents of Rutherford, Minn., in Gunn’s smart, twisty sixth Jake Hines mystery (after 2014’s Red Man Down). Apparently, persons unknown are clearly upset with the efforts of some of Rutherford’s new scientific R&D industries to genetically alter crops. And they’re not above a little nighttime breaking and entering to lodge their complaints. They jimmy locks and take nothing, but they do leave nasty messages. It may just be misdemeanor fun, until one of Rutherford’s industrial scientists ends up dead. But as Jake, the affable head of Rutherford’s detective division, narrates his department’s crime-solving steps—outsmarting lying witnesses and navigating the inevitable blind alleys—the town and its cops come alive on the page. Gunn expertly blends the timely, headline-grabbing topics of GMO foods and climate change with credible characters and situations. Agent: Jane Chelius, Jane Chelius Literary Agency.

July 1, 2015

Jake Hines, now happily married, enjoys his brown-bag lunch with a colleague discussing cases, such as a recent string of break-ins at high-tech start-ups. When one of the business founders is murdered, does this mean the culprits who left threatening messages have escalated their tactics, or is something else afoot? The tenth entry (after Eleven Little Piggies) in this successful police procedural set in Minnesota features the usual cast of characters.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015
A rash of break-ins at 14 of the cutting-edge science start-ups that have been flocking to small-town Rutherford, Minnesota, puzzles chief of detectives Jake Hines. Nothing is taken during these crimes, but warnings at the scenes proclaim the dangers of genetically modified foods and threaten retribution. Then Nathan Gold, a scientist doing crop experimentation for SmartSeeds, is found dead at his desk with no sign of trauma; another scientist is shot at; and a woman is injured at another business. Hines and his force work long hours to determine how these crimes are related, with Gold's apparent murder complicated by what is learned about his family. The Jake Hines series is marked by character developmentof Hines, his family (he's now the dad of 18-month-old Ben), and his colleaguesand this tenth entry continues in that vein, with intriguing hints about the relationship between two of Hines' detectives. The ecoterrorism/GMO theme is up-to-the-minute current, while the motive for murder is timeless. Another solid police procedural from the reliable Gunn.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2018
The fire on Meredith Mountain in south-central Montana, which covers an area the size of Rhode Island, is a catastrophe that creates opportunity, at least for the Guardian, a weekly newspaper in the small town of Clark's Fort. Recent college grad Stuart Campbell, newly hired as assistant editor, makes his name as a photojournalist covering the blaze, while his aunt, retired English teacher Alice Adams, hired part-time to edit the paper, polishes Stuart's prose as the Guardian publishes daily during the fire and earns kudos as the little weekly that could. Then a charred body is found during the cleanup, and the paper's coverage is extended, with Stuart and Alice playing pivotal roles in identifying the remains and ascertaining the cause of death. A separate plot thread, involving a group of young men who call themselves the Gamers and gather weekly to use drugs, wraps around what turns out finally to be a murder investigation. This departure from Gunn's Jake Hines and Sarah Burke police procedural series is a solid stand-alone with well-drawn characters, drawing on familiar investigative-journalism themes to create a thoroughly engaging crime novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)