A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

Arfive

Small-town Montana sheriff Chick Charleston and his highly educated sidekick, Jason Beard, star again in this fourth installation of Guthrie’s Montana murder mysteries. This time Jason is helping the sheriff solve the murder of a call girl, and his first step involves him in the unwelcome necessity of interviewing the local madam, whose view of the town is extensive and rather unusual. It also involves him with various drifters and cranks, as well as with the uncooperative police of the neighboring oil town of Overthrust. Weaving a story set against a broad western landscape—from the raw and cheerful locales of the Bar Star and The Gusher to the grand, wide-open spaces—Guthrie’s touch is unerring.

Playing Catch-Up

The temperature in Midbury, Montana, is hovering at 40 below zero, wolves are howling, and the town is smoldering with a strip-mining debate that quickly exceeds the bounds of polite discussion. The ranchers are not about to see their land destroyed, and as the miners’ trailers roll into town the tension rises. Sheriff Chick Charleston has the task of calming the hotheads on both sides and making sure the law is carried out. His earnest sidekick, Jason Beard, is back with him, but the department is short-handed and Jase is instructed to find another deputy. It says something about Charleston’s problems that the likeliest candidate is bantam Ike Doolittle, up before Judge Bolster on a charge you wouldn’t believe if we told you. Ritual cattle killings and environmental strip-mining hearings pale in significance when a murder takes place at the Chicken Shack, the miners’ hangout, launching Sheriff Charleston and Jase on a new mystery chase that will keep readers guessing.

A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

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