MATTHEW AND WILMA Mason, a married couple from San Francisco on a driving tour of southwest national parks, are found shot to death in the remote and rugged backcountry of southeast Utah. A revolver clutched in Matthew’s hand suggests a murder-suicide, but Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera thinks otherwise. In his mind, there are too many unanswered questions. Why had the Masons, at age 68, detoured … from the planned vacation route shown on their map? Why had they left the comfort of paved roads for rough, gravel back roads that led to nowhere in particular? Why had they driven to the place where they were found, next to an abandoned grass airstrip? And most peculiar of all, why were they dressed like hippies from the 1960s?
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I have read and liked all in this series.
This book is about a killing of a California couple on a remote road in Utah. The killer turns out to be a man they once knew by a different name. He took over the ranch from the old owner after he died. The old owner thought he was his long lost grandson. However, the real grandson died on the way to his grandfather’s ranch after hitchhiking in a van belonging to the imposter. The California couple were passengers in the van. They never reported the death because they had drugs in the van and wanted to avoid the cops.
I had high hopes for this story, but poor editing and story structure really dragged it down. It is a mystery involving what looks like a staged murder-suicide of an elderly couple dressed as 1960’s hippies and then the murder of a Native American in a remote high dessert area of Utah. The investigation goes on for two thirds of the book finding nothing but dead ends. Granted, there were a few clues being uncovered that later become important, but nothing that suggests progress is being made in the investigation. The author may have thought he was building suspense by dragging things out, but for the reader it was just boring as the investigator runs around in circles. I had already figured out the ending owing to one piece of obvious and odd information that just red flagged the culprit for me. There were also repeated and unnecessary instances where the author had the investigator go through all the facts of the case, perhaps believing that readers were unable to follow the story. Give us some credit, please! Then at the end the investigator again gives a long narration of all the facts explaining to other characters how he solved the case. I read the book and didn’t need the summary—again! This book needed a good editor and a little more to hold interest in the first half of the book.
I love this author’s work – I’ve read several of them and they seem to get better and better. I’d recommend this to anyone who loves great plot work.
These books are an enjoyable easy read. The plots are not formulaic, and there are interesting turns in the evidence. The lack of profanity and overt sex allow the reader to focus on the story, the characters, the locations, and the unravelling of the mystery. I look forward to each installment in this series.