English Lessons

June 1, 2011

Christmas looks to be bleak for Sewa Tribal Police Officer Heather English (Server Down) when she finds a dead Arizona state official and a warning that she's a target, too.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2011

Christmas brings a startling assortment of violent surprises to Officer Heather English of the Sewa Tribal Police, her Cheyenne uncle and her father.

The first surprise comes when Heather, following an anonymous phone tip, finds Arizona governor-elect Joe Hyde's corpse skinned and pinned to a wall far from anywhere. Her uncle Mad Dog awakens to discover a package on his doorstep containing a severed human hand, a grisly sign from someone who thinks Mad Dog, a wannabe shaman, is setting up as a rival drug lord. Nor is Heather's father, sheriff of far-off Benteen County, Kan., to be outdone. A pair of apparently innocuous misdemeanors--elderly Lottie Walker's reckless driving and the defacing of Don Crabtree's Yuletide crèche--swiftly escalate to a full-blown, and ultimately sanguinary, battle between Sheriff English and the townsfolk, who are convinced he wants to confiscate their guns. How closely will Mad Dog's troubles with the killer hired to take him out be linked to Heather's stalking by the professional assassin who's still smarting because she survived their last encounter (Server Down, 2008, etc.)? And what do their travails have to do with those of her father and brother four states away? Hayes cuts back and forth from one story to the next, pumping up the body count--at least 12 dead among the three plotlines--and editing for maximum punch. The result, however cinematic, is oddly weightless, with a general effect of nonstop bustle rather than violent threat.

The best of the three stories is Sheriff English's siege against his gun-toting neighbors; the other two are for fans of the first five installments only.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2011
It is a bleak Christmas in Arizona as Tribal Police Officer Heather English patrols a desolate canyon. She discovers the body of the newly elected governor along with a note saying that Heather will be among the next victims. On the same day, her uncle, Mad Dog, a Cheyenne amateur shaman, receives a package containing a severed human hand. Meanwhile, back in Kansas, Heathers father, Sheriff English of Benteen County, receives a death threat of his own. Someone has desecrated an elaborate cr'che, and its owner theatens to kill those he feels are responsible. Sheriff English confiscates the cr'che owners guns and quickly learns hes provoked the local militia, who dont like anyone parted from their weapons. Hayes jumps from Arizona to Kansas, as the various English family members solve crimes and extricate themselves from harms way. In this always entertaining series, Hayes never fails to mix action and humor in an engaging manner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)