Until Barrett’s wife Laura Anne leaves him and takes their twin nine year old sons back to the small town of Deacon Beach. Laura Anne is unable to accept the prejudices and dangers that their sons are experiencing. Bear’s life hits the skids when she leaves. Drinking too much and working too little, he rapidly garners the attention of the Chief. Summarily the Chief breaks up his partnership with Cricket, and reassigns them both. Bear draws inputting of records for his new job.

When the body of Mile Benyon is found by a game warden, the Chief reactivates Bear and Cricket to handle the investigation. Benton spent six years in prison for robbing an armored car and the missing money was never found. The challenge is daunting, since Bear and Cricket must start at least seven years earlier in their search for Benton’s elusive partner and the murderer. Bear approaches it half-heartedly as he by now has developed a giant case of fear of failure.

The trail leads them to Dead Man’s Bay, a fishing village lost in time. Almost every clue that is found serves only to make the puzzle more complex. The plot twists along as Bear is trying to straighten out his marital life. Likeable as he is, early into the book a reader could decide Bear is the author of his own misfortune.

Conceptually, the mechanics of the plot have a lot of interest and merit. It is in the execution that it flounders. Segues between scenes are often totally nonexistent. The book is riddled with an overwhelming number of clichés and metaphors. The dialogue is gritty, terse, and unimaginative. This is then juxtaposed with Bear’s inner thoughts, which would be best understood by a reader with a degree in literature and a large vocabulary.

It is the choppy unevenness of the book that makes it difficult to read. When the writer’s style gets in the way of a developing story of a murder investigation, however compelling, a reader’s interest wanes.

--Thea Davis