Cactus
Heart
A
David Mapstone Mystery
Jon
Talton
Poisoned
Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-352-3 (1590583523)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-352-4 (9781590583524)
Publication Date: May 2007
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): This “prequel” to the David
Mapstone mysteries takes place in 1999, when everything dot-com was
making money, the Y2K bug was the greatest danger facing the world, and
the good times seemed as if they would never end.
It was a time before David and Lindsey were together, before Mike
Peralta was sherriff, and before David had rid himself of the sexy and
mysterious Gretchen.
In Phoenix, it’s the sweet season and Christmas and the new
millennium are only weeks away. But history professor David Mapstone,
just hired by the Sheriff’s Office, still finds trouble,
chasing a robber into an abandoned warehouse and discovering a gruesome
crime from six decades ago.
Mapstone begins an investigation into a Depression-era kidnapping that
transfixed Arizona and the nation: the disappearance of a cattle
baron’s grandsons, their bodies never found. And although the
kidnapper was caught and executed, Mapstone uncovers evidence that
justice was far from done. But this is no history lesson. The cattle
baron’s heirs now run a Fortune 500 company and wield far
more clout than a former-professor-turned-deputy. When one of the heirs
turns up dead, Mapstone knows his life may even be at risk.
Review:
Jon Talton returns to the last months of 1999 as the setting for the
fifth mystery in the David Mapstone series, Cactus Heart.
Mapstone has an interesting profession: a historian, working on a
commission basis, for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department. He also
has the rank of Deputy Sheriff with all the privileges and
responsibilities that come with the title. When the bodies of two
children are discovered sealed behind the wall of an abandoned
warehouse in downtown Phoenix, Mapstone is drawn into a crime from 1941
in which the twin grandsons of a prominent Arizona businessman were
kidnapped, their bodies never found ... until now. Though the kidnapper
had been caught, tried, and executed, Mapstone orders some tests on the
skeletal remains, the results of which lead him to believe the case is
far from closed.
Cold case crimes are fascinating in many ways, and the one presented in
Cactus
Heart is at times riveting.
Mapstone uses modern technology, from computerized databases to DNA
testing, and combines it with handwritten police and medical records
from decades earlier to piece together how those two boys came to be
entombed in the warehouse. He also deftly negotiates overlapping
jurisdictions in investigating the crime and skillfully handles the
politically sensitive task of taking on a still powerful Arizona family.
Talton manages to integrate Mapstone's personal life, his strengths and
weaknesses, his doubts and fears, into Cactus Heart
without detracting from the overall story. (The title actually refers
to Mapstone himself, not some aspect of the crime.) This not only
creates a strong, complex protagonist that contrasts well with other
characters but also enhances key elements of the plot.
The plot itself gets a little convoluted on occasion and there are a
few too many convenient coincidences that allow Mapstone to wrap things
up neatly in the end, but these minor faults don't lessen the appeal of
this very good mystery.
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of Cactus Heart for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Cactus Heart? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
Concrete
Desert
St. Martin's MInotaur (Hardcover), July 2001
ISBN-10: 0-312-26953-6 (0312269536)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-26953-1 (9780312269531)
Camelback
Falls
St. Martin's MInotaur (Hardcover), January 2003
ISBN-10: 0-312-30404-8 (0312304048)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-30404-1 (9780312304041)
Dry
Heat
St. Martin's MInotaur (Hardcover), October 2004
ISBN-10: 0-312-33385-4 (0312333854)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-33385-0 (9780312333850)
Arizona
Dreams
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), September 2006
ISBN-10: 1-59058-318-3 (1590583183)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-318-0 (9781590583180)
Cactus Heart
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), May 2007
ISBN-10: 1-59058-352-3 (1590583523)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-352-4 (9781590583524)
Omnimystery
keywords for Cactus Heart
...
Location(s) referenced: Phoenix,
Arizona.
