Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: High Road by Jeff Carson

Jeff Carson writes an independently published police procedural series that has developed a significant following. Set in the mountains of Colorado, David Wolf progresses from police detective to sheriff and steps back into the role of chief of detectives in the course of 15 books. The 16^th is scheduled for publication in November 2022. Ratings on Amazon and GoodReads are consistently four stars or higher with thousands of reviews for each title. For those that wonder if finding a large audience is possible without the support of a traditional publisher, it’s clear that at least for Carson, the answer is yes.

In the most recent title High Road (Cross Atlantic Publishing, 2021) the district attorney from neighboring Crow County asks for the loan of Wolf from the Byron County Sheriff’s Department to investigate the murder of the only son of Crow County’s sheriff Clark Mustaine.

Mustaine and Wolf have a history from playing high school football years ago and both have long memories. Mustaine, physically large, was a bully as a teenager and he’s a bully as an adult. The loss of his son has pushed him over the edge and he assaults a potential witness. The removal of Mustaine from the case is imperative but no one can reason with him. The DA hopes that Wolf can make him see the need to back off.

Wolf reluctantly agrees to assist. Mustaine is overtly uncooperative and verbally combative. He focuses, with no evidence, on two young women who were in the same bar as his son just before his death. Wolf not only has an investigation to lead but he has to watch Mustaine to keep him from overstepping again.

I am happy to have discovered this new-to-me small town police procedural series. This entry has an original plot and some appealing characters. Readers looking for a new author to binge might add Carson to their list. Fans of Western police procedurals and small town mysteries will especially want to consider these books.

·         ASIN: ‎ B09HB91XZG

·         Publisher: ‎ Cross Atlantic Publishing (December 7, 2021)

·         Publication date: ‎ December 7, 2021

·         Language: ‎ English

·         File size: ‎ 1576 KB

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.