Bohannon's Women

This is the first book by Joseph Hansen I've read and I picked it up because it had several mystery stories I could dip into when I wanted. Much like an Ellery Queen "Mystery Magazine" these are stories to be read in short bursts. I really liked the character of "Bohannon" and his daughters. The tales themselves were rich and good fun, with a cast of characters that you don't long forget. Each story picks up on the cast of regulars and adds them into the next. They mysteries themselves weren't too difficult to "solve" and I wish a few were a little less obvious, but all in all I really enjoyed the book. I'll be picking up his other short story collections as well.

This is the last of the three "Bohannon"-Books, collections of short stories about private investigator / rancher Hack Bohannon. In my opinnion it's the best of the three. The stories have more dynamic than the earlier ones and the author finally settled on concentrating on the crime and not reflecting so much about his heroe's doomed marriage. There's suspense and humour and Hansen shows once more that he knows how to create a psychologically believeable character with only a few words. "Bohannon's Women" is a collection of his last and probably some of his best stories. ~*~ "Storm Damage" Told from the perspective of a teenaged boy who arrives home one day to discover the body of his stepfather - who's obviously been murdered. Suspecting either his mother, his father or his grandmother of the crime, the boy is torn between fear, guild and his attempts to prevent the local police from solving the case. "Widower's Walk" An interesting study about prejudices and small-town society. A wealthy man is found murdered in the wilderness and everyone but Bohannon suspects the town's regular troublemaker, a Vietnam veteran. "Confessional" A variation of the classic story about the priest who knows the murderer but isn't allowed to say so. It gets interesting when said priest knows also a private investigator... "Survival" A disturbing story about a group of "survivalists" who live secretely in the woods and are planing to get rid of everybody they think of as "un-american" - meaning Jews, colored people, non-christian people and democracy in general. The focus of this story isn't a murder case but Bohannon's fate when he stumbles into this group's camp by accident. "Home is the Place" Bohannon is asked to help with a murder case that involves an AIDS victim and his family. The son, dying of AIDS, is found shot in his parent's house and his father seems to be guilty of the crime. Only that there isn't a murder weapon in or outside the house to be found and the suspect didn't have the time to get rid of it. "Widdershins" This story is in so far unusual for the "Bohannon"-universe as it deals with magic or people who practice magic. The disappearance of a young girl leads Bohannon to a witch-coven and the discovery of a connection between the suicide of a high-school student and the head of the local school being presented with a vodoo-doll. ~*~ Recommended!