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9781590583777

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Talton's summer mystery, a first novel, shows how fertile the desert can be as mystery setting...Mapstone's musings on history, ancient and modern, as reflected by changes in the desert and the city of Phoenix, are both intriguing and well suited to the mystery he works on here... A stunning debut. -- Booklist starred review [Talton's] economical style and fast pacing keep the story flowing, and the dialogue is intelligent and realistic. The Phoenix setting is particularly strong, with wonderful and succinct descriptions of a city in flux...more intelligent and rewarding than most contemporary mysteries. -- Washington Post Mapstone is an attractive personality and the well-paced narrative is an entertaining read. -- Telegraph

The perfect setting for private eyes used to be the urban jungle, rife with alienation and secrets. More recently, though, such writers as Tony Hillerman and Nevada Barr have opened up regions of landscape, history, and soul previously unexplored by the detective novel. Talton's summer mystery, a first novel, shows how fertile the desert can be as mystery setting. Concrete Desert is set in Phoenix, a city that adds a mile of concrete a minute. Former sheriff's deputy David Mapstone has a doctorate in American history and holds two cornerstone beliefs: the past is never past, and everything is connected. Mapstone's musings on history, ancient and modern, as reflected by changes in the desert and the city of Phoenix, are both intriguing and well suited to the mystery he works on here after he's refused university tenure and returns to part-time work going through old cases in the sheriff's office. A 40-year-old case, in which a serial killer dumped prostitutes' bodies in the Harquahala Desert, intersects eerily with the recent disappearance of the sister of Mapstone's former lover. His investigation into both matters in the high hell of a Phoenix summer leaves him reeling between his own idealistic past and discontented present and a current crime whose horror comes from a past other cops tried to bury. A stunning debut. --Booklist Starred Review

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Jon Talton is the author of 11 novels, including the David Mapstone Mysteries and the thriller Deadline Man. He is also a veteran journalist, including the former business editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Jon lives in Seattle where he is the economics columnist for the Seattle Times and runs the blog Rogue Columnist.

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