Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – A Lonesome Place for Murder by Nolan Chase
Showing posts with label Nolan Chase. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nolan Chase. Show all posts
Monday, September 08, 2025
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Publication Day Review: A Lonesome Place for Murder: An Ethan Brand Mystery by Nolan Chase
A Lonesome Place for Murder: An Ethan Brand Mystery by Nolan Chase is the sequel to A Lonesome Place for Dying. It, like that first book, is a really good read. You could read this one first, if you wanted, but why do that as the series is a good one and should be read in order like all good series.
As this book
begins, Chief of Police Ethan Brand and Deputy Brenda Lee Page are slogging it
out as they hike through a pasture. The mission is to find an old man and a
certain horse. Both work for the small town of Blaine, Washington, near the
border with Canada. They might not be the ones even out there now except for the
fact that Chief of Police Brand is thinking about buying the horse. He had an
appointment to see the horse and brought Deputy Brenda Lee Page with him, on
her day off, as support as she knows animals. Not that she knows much about
horses.
Brand’s ex and
the kids live in Boston now and the most recent visitation did not go as well
as he would have hoped. Both of his sons during the summer visitation were too
immersed in their electronic devices when they were not actively doing
something. That is except for one afternoon when they were able to interact
with a horse in its trailer. The Christmas visitation is coming up and Brand is
thinking that maybe a horse would help things. He wants his young sons to be present
in the world and understand that there are things that matter far more than
chatting online and playing videogames. He is feeling a growing gap between his
sons and himself and is having a hard time with the dawning realization that his
ex and his sons aren’t going to come back home.
The muddy and
wet pasture they are slogging through has a slope to it as it sits parallel to
the Canadian border. It is where they were sent by the owner’s wife to go check
on him as he is overdue for getting back to the house. The slope and the wet ground
are working Brand’s surgically repaired left foot and causing him increasing pain
as he climbs steadily higher up the slope. The man they are looking for is Mac
Steranko. Once they finally the crest and can look down the other side, towards
the border, they can see him sitting on the ground near a patch of disturbed
ground.
The elderly Mr.
Steranko is a tough man and lucky to be alive. He is a bit banged up as is the
horse, Trim Reckoning. It is favoring a leg and is a bit spooked by the hole in
the ground. Mr. Steranko explains that the horse stumbled hard because a patch
of ground suddenly gave way under it.
Even more ground
gives way when Brenda Lee starts poking around and accidentally causes a bigger
collapse. One that dumps her several feet down into a hole that is now several
feet long. In fact, this is not a hole, but a partial tunnel collapse.
Back a few years
earlier, Brand was in the military. One of his duties in the Helmand Province
of Afghanistan was clearing tunnels. The last thing he wants to do is go down
in that tunnel. But, when Brenda Lee finds a body in there that has been there
for quite some time, he doesn’t have a choice.
A body that soon
means quite a lot to Ethan Brand in more ways than one.
What follows is
another highly entertaining and complicated read in this great series. Not only
do they have a murder to solve, local politics is heating up, his ex has plans
that don’t involve him, and history is rearing its ugly head. Much is going on professionally
and personally and Ethan Brand is a bit like the dogged prize fighter that
takes body blow and head shot, one after another, with barely any time to
breathe as he leans against the ropes. Backed in a corner every which way, all
he can do is keep his head down, and keep dodging that fatal blow. Or that head
shot as the case may be.
A Lonesome Place
for Murder: An Ethan Brand Mystery by Nolan Chase is a mighty good read.
Very much strongly recommended as it is well worth your time.
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4iVOHo1
My digital ARC
reading copy came from the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, through NetGalley,
with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Tuesday, May 07, 2024
Review: A Lonesome Place for Dying: A Novel by Nolan Chase
A Lonesome Place for Dying: A Novel by Nolan Chase takes the reader to Blaine, Washington, in
this very good police procedural. Veteran Ethan Brand has been through some
things. He came home, got off the drugs, got on the local police force, and is
now 42 years old. He is also now the new chief of police for the town of just
over six thousand. The Canadian Border is just north of town with Bellingham,
and 90 miles away, Seattle, to the south.
It is April and so the tourists have yet to descend in mass.
Things should be somewhat easy on his first day in the new job as he has been
on the force for a number of years now and pretty much knows everybody. It also
helps he grew up there.
There have been some strange things happening at his house.
There is also the stress of being the new boss. Especially when Officer Brenda Lee
Paige was skipped over by the former chief, Frank Keogh, when he recommended to
the council they appoint, Ethan Brand. Frank’s son, Mal Keogh, also still works
in the department and is clearly not ready to recognize Brand as his boss. Frank
has also left him the pollical problem as to what to do Officer Cliff Mooney.
He is trying to smooth things over with Brenda Lee, at least
a little bit, when Officer Ruiz calls in over the radio and requests assistance
out at MO’s Scrapyard on the southeast side of the town. There is a body about
a mile and a quarter from the scrapyard. Officer Ruiz was out at the yard on
the vandalism call. The owner had thought it was kids and that they were still
around on the nearby train tracks. They went looking to see if they could find
the kids, or evidence tied into them, and found the body instead.
The deceased woman appears to be in her late twenties. It
appears she was stabbed twice in her right side. It was raining until just
after midnight and her clothing is dry. There is also no sign of anything
around the body. Brand is left to wonder if she, somehow, came off of the train
as it rolled by on the tracks a few feet away, or some other way.
What follows is a complicated police procedural that
features a lot of world building. Rich and full small town characters including
Brand, and a complicated mystery, are all at work here in A Lonesome
Place for Dying. It takes familiar tropes, such as the veteran wounded
and back home trying to stay sober, and turns them in new ways that reveal
depth and nuance of characters. Those side excursions into backstory don’t slow
the forward motion of the tale. Instead, they enhance the read.
Everything combines incredibly well together to create a
mighty good read. One that hopefully is the start of a series. A Lonesome
Place for Dying: A Novel by Nolan Chase is absolutely strongly
recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Unsdlx
My reading copy was a digital ARC from the publisher,
Crooked Lane Books, through NetGalley and was provided with no expectation of a
review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2024
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