Cactus Heart (David Mapstone Mysteries, 7) - Softcover

Talton, Jon

4.11

247 ratings by Goodreads

9781590583531: Cactus Heart (David Mapstone Mysteries, 7)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590583531 ISBN 13: 9781590583531

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2007

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In 1999 Phoenix, the new millennium is only weeks away. But history professor David Mapstone, just hired by the Sheriff's Office, chases a robber into an abandoned warehouse and discovers a gruesome crime that is six decades old. Mapstone's investigation widens to a Depression-era kidnapping of a cattle baron's grandsons, their bodies never found. And although the kidnapper was caught and executed, Mapstone uncovers evidence that justice was far from done. And then, one of the cattle baron's heirs who is running a Fortune 500 company turns up dead.... A fourth-generation Arizonan, Jon has developed his writing during 20 years as a journalist. He is the author of five David Mapstone mysteries: Concrete Desert, Cactus Heart, Camelback Falls, Dry Heat (2005 Arizona Highways Fiction Award winner) and Arizona Dreams (a 2006 BookSense Pick). www.jontalton.com

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About the Author:

Author Jon Taltonas writing was developed over 20 years as a journalist, working for newspapers in San Diego, Denver, Dayton, Cincinnati, Charlotte, and Phoenix. Jonas columns have appeared in newspapers throughout North America. Before journalism, Jon worked as an ambulance medic in the inner city of Phoenix. He now lives in Seattle, WA.
http://www.jontalton.com

Review:

""In an entertaining prequel, Talton tells how series hero David Mapstone got to be the way he is.

The History Shamus was born on the December day in 1999 which Prof. David Mapstone failed to get tenure at San Diego State. Through the agency of old friend Mike Peralta, Chief Deputy of Maricopa County (Ariz.), the hunky ex-history professor got a badge, a gun and, according to some, a sinecure: a case list of undemanding, go-through-the-motions ice-cold no-hopers. But Mapstone was about to get lucky 58 years after the twin four-year-old grandsons of cattle baron Hayden Yarnell were abducted. The ransom was paid and the kidnapper eventually caught, but the children were never found. Almost by accident, Mapstone is on the scene when the little bodies are discovered in an abandoned building. As a consequence, he begins a pro forma investigation that suddenly intensifies when it becomes clear that the man convicted and executed for the crime could not possibly have committed it -- and when it becomes equally clear that the rich and powerful Yarnell family is also secretive and dissembling.

The prose can go over the top now and then, but this fifth in the series (after Arizona Dreams, 2006, etc.) -- tightly plotted, smartly paced and enlivened by dollops of enthusiastic sex -- is purple-proof. Talton's best yet."" --Kirkus Reviews

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