The Big Thaw - Hardcover

Harstad, Donald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385495692 ISBN 13: 9780385495691

Publisher: Doubleday, 2000

Synopsis

Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman and his investigative partner, Hester Gorse, unearth a plot to rob the Colonel Beauregard riverboat casino, in a new thriller by the author of Known Dead..

About this title

Review:

The temperature is falling in Nationa County, Iowa--it should be a quiet time of year for Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman and his partner, General Criminal Agent Hester Gorse. With two key duties to divvy up, Gorse opts for security duty on the popular floating casino The Beauregard, leaving Houseman responsible for the rest of the county, not that taxing for either of them at first glance. However, a car chase down snow-locked backcountry roads is only the start of things for Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman. Petty crook Freddie has been driving for his burglar cousins the Colsons and is worried when they fail to come back to the car. The Sheriff finds them shot dead and stacked in the yard of the Borglan farm. Borglan himself is in Florida, but the signs are not good, there is right-wing literature on his bookshelves and someone has been using his computer. Something big is going down, some hardened criminals have set their sights on The Beauregard. Houseman is compelled to involve the FBI but fights hard to maintain his dignity, his integrity and control of his operation. This is a book with an admirable sense of place and season, which is brilliant on what happens to the time-word procedures of police work when an average cop finds himself up against someone who plays by very different rules. Written by a man who spent 26 years as the deputy sheriff in north eastern Iowa the plot could not fail to ring true. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

‘Harstad’s books are terrific and really capture the atmosphere of small-town America, where the twentieth century almost seems to have slipped by unnoticed.’ Independent on Sunday

‘Harstad’s first-hand experience ensures his storytelling always rings true.’ Arena

‘The Big Thaw, set in the dead of winter in a Fargo-like mid-west, is American procedural writing at its best.’ Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0385495692
• ISBN 13: 9780385495691
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 356