Known Dead: A Novel (Carl Houseman) - Softcover

Harstad, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553580957 ISBN 13: 9780553580952

Publisher: Bantam, 2000

Synopsis

In the American heartland, someone is killing cops.

The ambush exploded in an Iowa marijuana field. The weapons were high caliber. The pot was high grade. And the reporters said afterward: "We have two known dead...."

Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman knew the dead all right: One was a small-time doper, the other a good cop. But Houseman doesn't know why they died, or who cut them down in a blaze of automatic rifle fire. Now, as the Feds descend on Nation County, Houseman and his fellow cops are suddenly walking point--searching for answers amidst the violence, treachery, and evil in their own backyard....

Donald Harstad's Eleven Days was called "a hell of a first novel" by Michael Connelly and "truly frightening" by the San Francisco Chronicle. In his electrifying new novel Harstad captures with nerve-shattering power an Iowa police department's harrowing search through a killing storm--to know the truth about the dead and the living alike....

About this title

Review

Donald Harstad was an Iowa deputy sheriff for 26 years, and only retired so that he could pursue his passion for writing. His first book was a well-received police mystery, Eleven Days. The same solid foundation of experience anchors Harstad's second mystery about Iowa deputy sheriff Carl Houseman, a sharp and likable 50-year-old with weight and blood pressure problems and strong opinions on every aspect of policing.

Known Dead begins with the murder of a state narcotics agent killed on Houseman's Nation County turf while staking out a marijuana patch. Blasts of gunfire from a band of mysterious shooters take out the agent and one local smalltime dealer. Then, while various federal and state agencies wrestle for control of the case, two more Nation County cops are shot down at the farm of a local extremist with links to a large militant group. As the resourceful Houseman tries to connect the shootings and keep some of the investigation in his own office, we learn all sorts of information about guns, bullets, trajectories, stakeouts, interagency rivalries, and the eating habits of cops of all kinds--taken no doubt from the author's lively memory and imagination. --Dick Adler

From the Back Cover

"Harstad punches all the paranoia buttons."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Instantly propels him into the top ranks of mystery writers."
--Booklist

"A complicated little conundrum of a plot that keeps Houseman, the Feds, and the reader guessing all the way through....An author who knows his territory."
--The New York Times

"Hardcore procedural fans will find Carl's second case authentically...realistic."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Harstad...advances the scary (and perversely entertaining) notion that people are just as cuckoo in the heartland as they are in the wicked city."
--The New York Times Book Review

Don't miss Donald Harstad's mesmerizing debut Eleven Days:
"A hell of a first novel...Gripping and unsettling."
--Michael Connelly

And coming soon in hardcover from Doubleday:
The Big Thaw

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0553580957
• ISBN 13: 9780553580952
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 400