Going Local

Small-town high jinks lead to deadly consequences and amorous affairs when the rodeo--and murder--comes to Sheriff Jules Clement's Montana town over the Fourth of July, in a sequel to The Edge of the Crazies. Tour.

It's his first day back on the job after getting shot at the climax of The Edge of the Crazies (1995), and already Absaroka County Sheriff Jules Clement has to tangle with two more homicides: environmental lawyer Otto Scobey and his girlfriend, Blue Deer bookkeeper Bonnie Siskowitz, the two of them run down in their snappy little tent and then dumped, Saab, tent, and all, into a convenient reservoir. Since Otto had maintained a close relationship with his ex-wife, land baroness Sylvia Coburg, and her business and romantic partner, movie director Hugh Lesy, all sorts of motives hover invitingly, from the highest crimes and misdemeanors (a bold, sneaky land deal Sylvia was masterminding) to the lowest (more mindless violence from abusive Genie Jordan, Bonnie's volatile, stupid former boyfriend). And as in Harrison's toothsome debut, there's a double helping of zany locals, strewn across the landscape like so many jumping beans. But this time the mixture isn't quite as fresh as before: Despite a brightly fatal rodeo sequence, the story gets becalmed in subplots halfway through, and the leading characters, sparkling as they are, don't have much more depth than the walk-ons. Still, this second helping of Blue Deer madness will keep you cheering Absaroka County's status as Montana's murder capital while you're waiting for the franchise's next move. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Two corpses, a birthday and a hangover only add to the difficulties already facing sheriff Jules Clement, as Blue Deer, Mont., fills up with tourists for the annual summertime Wrangle. Environmental lawyer Otto Scobey and Bonnie Siskowitz, a local lass with a taste for partying, have been run over while inside their small tent. Otto's work on Dragonfly, a planned posh spread of condos, resort and nature preserve, prompts Jules to suspect anyone connected to the project. Dragonfly folks claim all is well and Otto will be sadly missed. That story doesn't jibe, however, with Jules's discovery of the dead man's ex-wife, a Dragonfly partner, in Otto's kitchen with his files and a shotgun. Tracing the tedious details of Otto's legal work, Jules is just beginning to consider that all may not be sweet among the Dragonfly investors when there is a spectacularly ghastly and suspicious accident under the Wrangle's big lights. As in her first mystery, The Edge of the Crazies, Harrison mingles dark and (sometimes strange) comic elements to good effect. She is a dab hand at creating an assortment of characters, tossing them together, giving them something to squabble over and setting them loose?and if some end up dead, well, that just gives droll, intelligent Jules a way to earn his keep.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Harrison's sequel to The Edge of the Crazies (LJ 4/1/95) begins with a double murder near the small Montana town of Blue Deer. Sheriff Jules Clement, not exactly a gung-ho lawman, nevertheless feels compelled to track down the ex-con and woman-abuser probably responsible. The investigation involves detailed and wryly humorous analysis of the locals and often nefarious dealings with a fancy new resort development. The plot progresses intimately, in a manner reminiscent of television's Northern Exposure. Recommended.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Absaroka County Sheriff Jules Clement has returned from the monthlong recuperation necessary following the action in the series' first installment, The Edge of the Crazies (1995). This time, Clement investigates the dual murder of Otto Scobey, a local attorney who had been working to create an environmentally sensitive housing development in Blue Deer, Montana, and the woman who was sharing his tent on a camping trip. Suspicion immediately falls on the other developers, including Sylvia, Otto's ex-wife, but when she is crushed by a drugged horse during a rodeo, the equation changes yet again. Harrison, daughter of novelist Jim Harrison, is a skilled storyteller, and Jules Clement is an excellent hero. He has many of the qualities of the world-weary hard-boiled detective, urban version, but the rural setting brings new textures to the character. Harrison has also avoided the Northern Exposure trap, i.e., romanticizing the eccentrics and drunks who live in the small towns of the Northwest. A fine series in the making. George Needham