Review:
Don't let the title of this dry suspense novel fool you. It's very cold in January in Iowa, the setting for Donald Harstad's third outing in his series featuring Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman and his partner Hester Gorse. The only thing mild is the humor in this spare procedural, which involves the usual turf battle between the white hats (local law enforcement) and the black hats (the FBI) as a sidebar to the main plot. Instead of the mean streets and criminal underclass of urban thrillers, we get the militant extremists who frequent the vast, empty reaches of the Midwest. In this case, the black hats are onto the crazies, and the local good guy, Deputy Carl, is caught in the crossfire. The crazies want enough money to blow the heartland (who wouldn't, in January?), and to get it, they're prepared to blow up Iowa's biggest economic asset, a riverboat casino on the Mississippi. They're being manipulated by a chief crazy (or maybe an arch crazy) named Gabriel, and (naturally) the feds have been a few steps behind Gabriel for a while now. Deputy Carl is a nice guy, but irony is not his strong suit, and he's not particularly fast on the uptake, either. Eventually he does save the day in this somewhat pedestrian and slow-motion regional mystery. If you liked the movie Fargo, you'll love The Big Thaw. --Jane Adams
From the Back Cover:
Praise for Known Dead:
"[Harstad] knows his territory, and his description of it is gritty and realistic--a sophisticated, funny and diverting book."
--New York Times
"This fine novel instantly propels him into the top ranks of mystery writers." --Booklist
"Crackles with the electricity of an adrenaline-laced shoot-out."
--Denver Post
"A series to watch."
--Cleveland Plain Dealer
Praise for Eleven Days:
"A hell of a first novel. Donald Harstad has created a gripping and unsettling work that underscores the simple truth that the threat of evil and its violence is everywhere in America--even the farmlands of Iowa. Harstad seasons the book with a wonderful cast of characters and his insider's knowledge. His is a welcome new voice in crime fiction."
--Michael Connelly
"[Eleven Days] is a winner. Without pretension, full of the lives of small-town cops, so authentic you can all but hear the crackle in the two-way radios. And it's funny, too. Read it--it's a hot book."
--Thomas Gifford
"The kind of book that you start and finish in one late-night sitting."
--Sunday Express
"A major achievement and thriller debut by an ex-cop; a novel that smells and feels right."
--Time Out
"Eleven Days satisfies on every level--With one startling twist after another, this grisly but cunningly sophisticated story is truly frightening--A debut spellbinder."
--San Francisco Chronicle
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