Burnt River--A Mystery

February 16, 2015
In Salvalaggio’s absorbing second mystery featuring Det. Macy Greeley (after 2014’s Bone White Dust), Macy investigates the shooting murder of 26-year-old John Dalton, a highly decorated veteran of the Afghanistan war, in Wilmington Creek, Mont. The victim and his twin sister, Jessie, shared a secret involving militia leader Ethan Green, a secret that’s hinted at in the first chapter and that resonates throughout. Macy has to deal not only with the dysfunctional Dalton family, headed by powerful Jeremy Dalton, but also with her married boss, Ray Davidson, head of the state police, with whom she has a one-and-a-half-year-old son. Green hasn’t been seen for a year, but may be behind the shooting. While Davidson becomes convinced that Green was the culprit, Macy has her doubts. More killings follow, raising the tension all the way to the cliffhanger ending. The rugged Montana terrain matches the ruggedness of its inhabitants. Agent: Felicity Blunt, Curtis Brown.

March 1, 2015
The complex case of a back-alley murder and a coverup raises the low crime rate of a remote Montana town.When John Dalton, a decorated veteran and the son of a wealthy rancher, is shot to death next to a bar in Wilmington Creek, the captain of the state police, Ray Davidson, appoints Detective Macy Greeley as a special investigator. Davidson, the father of Macy's young son, has yet to keep his promise about leaving his wife. Macy's single-mother status helps her bond with John's twin sister, Jessie, a former drug addict with a 6-year-old daughter by a man she doesn't remember. John's murder devastates Jessie, whose twin was her bulwark against a bullying father and a mentally unstable mother. Unfortunately, the sole witness to the murder has bad vision, and a text to Jessie's mother that apologizes for the murder makes the case even murkier, as do a poisoned dog and John's girlfriend's ex-boyfriend. Davidson's visits from Helena to oversee the case complicate Macy's investigation further, especially when the town sheriff reminds her that sleeping with her boss is a bad idea yet wants to spend a night with her himself. Macy doesn't know that receding lake waters threaten to reveal criminal evidence that John and two childhood friends wanted to stay hidden. The past catches up with the present in a death by fire and a near miss for Macy in an explosion meant to kill someone else. The disappearance of the leader of a local militia, relationships ranging from ill-advised to obsessive to deadly, and a plot that depends on key players hiding their true selves add to a Gordian knot of a plot that could have been just as good with fewer threads. The dense web of characters contrasts with the spare style in this sequel to Bone Dust White (2014). Salvalaggio devotes as much attention to personalities as to the events that pull people together and drive them apart.

April 1, 2015

A raging wildfire isn't the only danger in Wilmington Creek, MT. Det. Macy Greeley, a special investigator with the state police, is called in to look into the murder of John Dalton, 26, a decorated war veteran recently returned home from three tours of duty in Afghanistan. Shot to death behind a local bar, John is survived by his twin sister, Jessie, a former drug addict struggling to care for her young daughter; his powerful rancher father; and his bipolar mother who's in the early stages of dementia. In sparsely populated Montana, Helena-based Macy is still surprised by the insular community, in which everyone knows everyone else's business. She takes particular interest in two of John's childhood best friends, both of them veterans: Dylan Reed, whose physical injuries pale in comparison to the war's lasting psychological trauma, and Tyler Locke, a cocky weapons expert with a short fuse. Along with town sheriff Aiden Marsh, Macy digs into the dysfunctional Dalton family's history, as well as John and his friends' dealings with notorious local militia leader Ethan Green. VERDICT In this stirring follow-up to 2014's Bone Dust White, Salvalaggio not only crafts a suspenseful mystery but also underscores the dire need in this country to recognize and treat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

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