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Overview
“A taut and tidy thriller”(San Diego Union-Tribune) focusing on a manhunt for a deranged killer—from the nationally bestselling author who “gets better and better.”(Tony Hillerman )
Living in London while his wife serves as a military attaché at the American Embassy, recently retired Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney gets an early morning phone call that changes everything and sends him hurrying home to his New Mexico ranch. Riley Burke, his partner in a horse-training enterprise, has been mowed down on Kerney’s doorstep by an escaped prisoner cutting a murderous swath through New Mexico.
As the killings mount, Kerney teams up with his half-Apache son, Lieutenant Clayton Istee of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, to hunt for a psychotic murderer with a growing appetite for blood—who has no intention of being taken alive.
Synopsis
Lawman turned best-selling author Michael McGarrity presents this thrilling Kevin Kerney novel—packed with gritty action—that "series fans will relish" (Publishers Weekly). Called out of retirement, Kerney must take up the hunt for a psychotic killer who's been blazing a path of carnage from Texas to Colorado. Fortunately he'll have help from his half-Indian son, Sgt. Clayton Istee.
The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio
In the iconography of thrillers, a serial killer can be psychologically complex as well as gruesomely entertaining. But you can't beat a spree killer for raw action, and in Dead or Alive, Michael McGarrity has produced a true monster in Craig Larson…McGarrity, a former deputy sheriff, knows the drill. He also knows the territory, which he portrays in a blunt, invigorating style that, even after a dozen books, still feels fresh.
Editorials
Marilyn Stasio
In the iconography of thrillers, a serial killer can be psychologically complex as well as gruesomely entertaining. But you can't beat a spree killer for raw action, and in Dead or Alive, Michael McGarrity has produced a true monster in Craig Larson…McGarrity, a former deputy sheriff, knows the drill. He also knows the territory, which he portrays in a blunt, invigorating style that, even after a dozen books, still feels fresh.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
McGarrity's 12th Kevin Kerney novel (after Death Song) displays the author's usual fine sense of place along with an unusual amount of gore. When escaped convict Craig Larson goes on a rampage that includes the murder of Riley Burke, a neighbor and business partner of former Santa Fe police chief Kerney, that's enough to bring Kerney, at least temporarily, out of retirement-and back from London, where Kerney's wife is a U.S. embassy employee. Larson's crime spree becomes more deadly as he tacks back and forth as far south as Texas and north almost to Colorado. Kerney, acting as a special investigator with the New Mexico State Police, and his lawman son, Clayton Istee, partner up for the statewide manhunt. McGarrity is particularly adept at portraying multijurisdictional investigations. While this isn't a good starting place for newcomers, series fans will relish the deepening relationship of Kerney and Istee, who only recently learned they were father and son. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
McGarrity has a long list of solid mysteries in his Kevin Kerney series. Unfortunately, the 12th (after Death Song) is not up to the same standard. Like all the Kerney books, it is set in New Mexico, peopled with a cast of likable characters, and features McGarrity's crisp and colorful writing. However, readers familiar with Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men(2005) or the Coen brothers' 2007 movie version will recognize the plot of the madman roaming the countryside and ruthlessly killing anyone who gets in his way. McGarrity's latest is as well done as McCarthy's so that those who haven't read No Country may be satisfied with the story of ex-sheriff Kerney, his army wife, and their family. Yet even McGarrity's knack for using the intriguing New Mexico setting as an integral aspect of the plot cannot redeem this relentless bloodbath of a novel. Coming so soon after No Country, it just seems derivative. Buy only where the series is popular.
—Ann Forister