A Long December

Donald Harstad writes an incredibly good police procedural. I'm not even a fan of the genre and yet I am hooked on this series! Carl Houseman, deputy sheriff and senior investigator for Nation County, Iowa, is called to the Heinman farm to investigate a dead body. The dead body, Rudy Cueva, worked at a local kosher meat packing plant in Battenberg and was shot at close range. Soon, another body is found, Juan Gonzalez aka Orejas, only he wasn't shot. Instead, he ingested the deadly toxin ricin and what has appeared to be a drug deal gone bad now has turned into a federal case involving terrorism. Meanwhile, people in New York are dying from ricin due to purchasing products connected to the Battenberg plant. All the usual characters from this series are present, including Iowa DCI agent Hester Gorse and the dispatcher, Sally. The book actually begins with the finale where Carl, Hester, Sally, and George are holed up in a barn, outgunned and outmanned. Harstad alternates chapters with the investigation from the beginning and scenes from the barn until reaching the final, dramatic conclusion of the novel. At first, I found this confusing but soon I realized that this actually added to the story. I eagerly await Harstad's next Carl Houseman novel!

I have read all of the books in this series and they seem to just get better. It is refreshing to read a story set in the midwest where things are a little more laid back than in the big cities. Mr. Harstad has created several interesting characters and continues to develop them in each story. I especially like the fact that the male and female officers can work together in these stories without having a romantic attraction. It is just about cops doing their job and in Nation county they do it well.

I was an early fan of Harstad's series (he's a real-life lawman in NE Iowa), but he's facing the same problem as Archer Mayor, another real-life rural cop -- how in the heck do you write a series set in a place where, in real life, nothing much ever happens beyond domestic violence and drunk & disorderly?For the most part, Mayor has concentrated on local color and a drawing a fine and very accurate portrait of low-life milltown New England. His mayhem has mostly remained realistic -- crooked real estate developers, out-of-control drug dealers, etc. Harstad, on the other hand, has opted for extra-crunchy police procedure (one volume even has a glossary of 10-codes) and an ever escalating collection of improbable "hell comes to Ioway" scenarios. I won't give away anything, but let's just say this one is very post-9/11. I can't imagine how he'll top himself unless the next novel contains a Martian invasion.The emphasis on bigger and better catastrophes has sorta moved the series halfway between police procedural and thriller. I still like them just fine, and Harstad remains an excellent writer, but I kinda wish he'd stopped at the "mysterious Satanic cult invades Iowa" level of improbability.Other than that, the series remains quite consistent, including the fact that each story finds office Houseman barely coming home to sleep, and that his wife is encountered largely through notes she leaves on the fridge. The cast of continuing characters is still here, including "George of the Bureau" and the formidable dispatcher Sally, and Harstad still has a keen and funny eye for the absurdities of organizational politics.

Harstad just keeps getting better and better. "A Long December" is a gripping story with explosive action that will shakes the dust off your rafters! If he weren't so good writing crime-stories, Harstad could probably give humorist Dave Barry a run for his money. Those who like stories that are crazy enough to be believable; those who like the idiosyncracies of small-town and rural life; and those who like looking at the world through the eyes of people who have to lay it on the line, you'll enjoy this one immensely. Every one of Harstad's books leaves me eager to read his next one!

Once again I am delighted with this author's unpretentious engagement that draws me into the life of a small county law enforcement agency policing amidst the corn fields and pig pens of rural Iowa. This story is technically trickier than previous Carl Houseman stories, and Harstad pulls it off masterfully. Half the action takes place during a siege in which the main character, chief investigator Houseman, and his law enforcement buddies are trapped in an old barn by automatic fire from unknown assailants. Interspersed with the siege story, the other half takes place in the days leading up to the siege. The basic plot answers the question, How does the execution murder of a small time Latino hustler with dubious drug involvement tie into an international plot to poison and kill thousands, starting with the Jewish patrons of a kosher meat packing plant in rural Iowa? I don't know what engages me more -- the tightly constructed, thoroughly believable trail of clues leading inexorably to the yet unexpected resolution, or the equally addicting wry, dry, self-deprecating and witty observations of investigator Houseman. I found myself chuckling out loud at his various droll comments, like when he was in the emergency room, trying to avoid being interviewed by the press, and finally deciding that trying to climb through the rest room's small window would only result in bigger press coverage of an aging, stocky law man stuffed half in and half out of a bathroom window. Houseman's humor brings a completely believable authenticity to law enforcement activity that is too often presented as mysterious and miraculous. What other mystery novelists would think to let us in on the true secrets of a good stakeout -- lots of good food and a battery operated heater? I laughed out loud at the picture of the four member team in multi-layered winter clothing struggling up the farmyard drive with multiple rifles, shotguns, sidearms, and ammunition -- and a bright red cooler full of "hot coffee, water, and sandwiches, and pop, and string cheese, and pretzels, and trail mix, and tea . . . " (258). And don't forget the thermos of minestrone and the Girl Scout cookies! I have two lists of favorite mystery writers -- those I pick up when they come out in paperback, and those that are worth first edition hardcovers. Harstad is absolutely on my first edition list!