Arizona Dreams - Softcover

Talton, Jon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1458746836 ISBN 13: 9781458746832

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2013

Synopsis

When a former student turns up in David Mapstone's office, she seems to have the perfect case for this history-professor-turned-deputy: a letter left by her deceased father, confessing to a forty-year-old murder and providing directions to the body. But things are never what they seem in Phoenix, a fastbuck city of newcomers seeking fresh starts from sometimes dark pasts. Just ask David's wife, Deputy Lindsey Faith Mapstone. One morning the start of the Willo District home tour is interrupted by murder. A man lies dead with an ice pick in his brain. And Lindsey runs right into her half-sister Robin among the crowd gathering in the historic Phoenix neighborhood, the sister Lindsey hasn't seen in years. The reunion with Robin rekindles memories about their rough upbringing and the deep rift that they may, or may not, bridge. Why is Robin here now? David has his own problems. There's a body in the desert, right where the letter said it would be found. But it's weeks old, not years. And the former student who brought in the letter has disappeared. When David finally locates her, she turns out to be a sham, the wife of a politician with a vendetta against Mapstone's boss, Sheriff Mike Peralta. But what's her agenda? Then even fresher bodies turn up, and the clues keep pointing back to the same remote piece of desert and a seemingly unconnected real estate development called Arizona Dreams. Mapstone knows something sinister is fueling this increasingly dangerous case....

About this title

About the Author:

Jon Talton is a fourth-generation Arizonan. His writing was developed over 20 years as a journalist, working for newspapers in San Diego, Denver, Dayton, Cincinnati and Charlotte. Jon's columns have appeared in newspapers throughout North America. In 2001, Jon returned to Phoenix as a columnist for the Arizona Republic. Before journalism, Jon worked as an ambulance medic in the inner city of Phoenix. He was also a teacher. Educated at Arizona State University and Miami University of Ohio, Jon was also a Knight Fellow in Journalism at the University of Southern California. He lives in Phoenix's Willo Historic District with his wife, Susan.

From Publishers Weekly:

Retired professor David Mapstone once again brings a historian's touch to his job as Phoenix deputy sheriff in Talton's smartly plotted fourth adventure (after 2004's Dry Heat). Nothing appears to link the ice-pick murder of lawyer Alan Cordesman in David's neighborhood with a body in the desert that turns out to be that of landowner Harry Bell. Months later, David starts connecting the dots when Harry's brother, Louis, also turns up with an ice pick through his skull, and David's supposed former student, who originally directed him to the location of the body in the desert, proves to be Dana Earley, wife of Tom Earley, Maricopa county supervisor and chief critic of the sheriff's department, run by David's prickly boss, Mike Peralta. David also links the Earleys to Arizona Dreams, a massive new development with one major problem: it has no water supply, a requisite in Arizona. But the Bell land does. While much of this is familiar territory, Talton crisply evokes Phoenix's New West ambience and keeps readers guessing with unexpected plot twists. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: ReadHowYouWant
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1458746836
• ISBN 13: 9781458746832
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 348