Dead or Alive - Hardcover

McGarrity, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525950818 ISBN 13: 9780525950813

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 2008

Synopsis

Living in London while his wife serves as a military attache at the American Embassy, recently retired Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney gets an early morning phone call that changes everything and sends him hurrying home to his New Mexico ranch. Riley Burke, his partner in a horsetraining enterprise, has been mowed down on Kerney's doorstep by an escaped prisoner desperate to avoid his long stint in Santa Fe's supermaximum security prison. Riley Burke isn't Craig Larson's first victim, but his murder quickly puts the police on Larson's trail as he cuts a murderous swath through New Mexico.
As the killings mount, Kerney teams up with his half-Apache son, Lieutenant Clayton Istee of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department, to hunt for an increasingly ruthless and unhinged killer. When the statewide manhunt thwarts Larson's escape, he turns his growing appetite for blood toward the two cops on his trail. Vowing not to be taken alive, Larson leads Kerney and Clayton on a deadly wild ride through the vast open rangeland and rugged mountains of New Mexico, where the hunters can quickly become the hunted.

About this title

About the Author

Michael McGarrity is the author of eleven Kevin Kerney novels, including the Anthony Award-nominated Tularosa. A former deputy sheriff for Santa Fe County, he has also served as an instructor at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy and as an investigator for the New Mexico Public DefenderÂ’s Office.

Reviews

McGarrity's 12th Kevin Kerney novel (after Death Song) displays the author's usual fine sense of place along with an unusual amount of gore. When escaped convict Craig Larson goes on a rampage that includes the murder of Riley Burke, a neighbor and business partner of former Santa Fe police chief Kerney, that's enough to bring Kerney, at least temporarily, out of retirement—and back from London, where Kerney's wife is a U.S. embassy employee. Larson's crime spree becomes more deadly as he tacks back and forth as far south as Texas and north almost to Colorado. Kerney, acting as a special investigator with the New Mexico State Police, and his lawman son, Clayton Istee, partner up for the statewide manhunt. McGarrity is particularly adept at portraying multijurisdictional investigations. While this isn't a good starting place for newcomers, series fans will relish the deepening relationship of Kerney and Istee, who only recently learned they were father and son. (Jan.)
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McGarrity’s Kevin Kerney series, set mainly in New Mexico, mixes several elements: the early novels combined razor-sharp procedural detail with a gripping noirish edge, while the last few swapped the noir for a full-palette portrayal of a cop’s domestic life. This time we’re back on the edge. Kerney, retired as Sante Fe’s chief of police, is living in London with wife Sarah, an Army colonel posted to Britain, and son Patrick when he learns that his New Mexico partner in a horse-raising business has been murdered at his ranch. It’s back to Santa Fe for Kerney, where he accepts a temporary assignment with the state police and joins the hunt for the killer. McGarrity juggles point of view here, moving from Kerney and his Apache son, Clayton, also a cop, as they follow the trail, to the killer himself, a lethal but oddly introspective sociopath right out of a Stephen Hunter novel. Readers who favor McGarrity wearing black rather than an apron will be well pleased by this strong return to his earlier style. --Bill Ott

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525950818
• ISBN 13: 9780525950813
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304