Buffalo Bill's Defunct

Buffalo Bill's Defunct: My new mystery series, set in fictional LaTouche County at the west end of the Columbia River Gorge, explores another gentrifying rural setting. BBD deals with the theft of petroglyphs from a LaTouche county park.  I've sold the book to Perseverance Press.  It comes out in September of 2008.

Rob Neill, chief of investigation for the sheriff's department, has a new neighbor, yet another transplant from southern California. Meg McLean is the new head librarian of the excellent county library system, succeeding Rob's grandmother. The body of a young Native American is found buried in the floor of Meg's somewhat primitive garage. When she is cleared of suspicion, Rob deputizes her. He needs an information specialist. I liked that solution to the amateur/pro problem that plagues the mystery genre, and Meg does find crucial evidence.

In this book, I'm particularly fond of Madeline Thomas, who is principal chief of the Klalos and no fan of the sheriff's department, and of Towser, an amiable Rhodesian ridgeback whose unpleasant master, a county commissioner, is also murdered. The title of the book comes from e.e. cummings's poem, which is quoted as a prologue to the novel with the kind permission of the E.E. Cummings Trust. 

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what I want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death