Cool in Tucson (A Sarah Burke Mystery) - Softcover

Before she started to write, Elizabeth Gunn made her living as an innkeeper in Montana, while indulging hobbies as a private pilot, live-aboard sailor, and SCUBA diver. “I like adventure,” she says, “but I was always sure I’d settle down some day and write books.” Turned out she was right. Beginning in 1997, she’s written fifteen mystery novels, a fair-sized row of short stories, critiques, and a novella. And yes, of course, she’s at work on another novel. TRIPLE PLAY was the first of the Minnesota mysteries, and the series has progressed through the numbers—the latest is ELEVEN LITTLE PIGGIES. The setting is Minnesota, where the author grew up. The pace of change, and the beautiful countryside being gobbled up by fast-growing cities, form a recurring motif throughout the series. COOL IN TUCSON started a second series after she moved to Arizona. From the green land of ten thousand lakes to the dry heat of a polyglot desert city is quite a jump. The Tucson stories reflect the gritty ambience, eighty miles from the Mexican border and in summer “too hot to spit,” one of her characters remarks. Marilyn Stasio, mystery critic for the New York Times, called Gunn’s novels “precision-tooled procedurals.” While she loves police ride-alongs, and is known for careful depiction of the latest bells and whistles, Gunn says she enjoys writing mostly “for the chance to build characters and turn them loose on each other. People-watching, that’s what’s fun.”

Building on the success of her popular Jake Hines mysteries, Gunn offers a new series, this one featuring Tucson police detective Sarah Burke. Smart, ambitious Sarah has progressed up the ranks to detective grade, with her eye firmly on her boss’ job. But right now, she has to crack one very nasty murder case—the stabbing death of a dealer associated with one of Tucson’s deadliest drug lords. As she digs deeper, Sarah realizes there’s something decidedly odd about the dead man—unlike most dealers, he was a clean-living guy who didn’t drink or use drugs. As Sarah tries to find the killer, she deals with troubling personal issues (always a good way to provide backstory): an alcoholic sister, a neglected niece, and her own bitter divorce. But these pale when the niece is kidnapped, and Sarah determines that it’s related to the murder case. Sarah isn’t a particularly groundbreaking heroine, but she fits firmly into the vulnerable-but-tough-minded female-sleuth mold created by Muller, Grafton, and Paretsky; as such, she will appeal to fans of those gold-standard authors. --Emily Melton