Book Review: The Hangman's Tree

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Hangman's Tree     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Frederic Bean
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   Woman Main Character
Series: Carla Jenkins & Captain Groves # 2
Bantam, Sept 2000, $5.99, 288 pp.

Influential Texas rancher Walter Lacy pulls strings to insure the Texas Rangers assign agents from outside his county. He specifically asks for retired Captain Alfred Jenkins. Captain Claude Groves and Alfred’s daughter officer Carla Jenkins receive the case involving the hanging of Lacy’s son Danny from a tree with red bark that allegedly once flowed with the blood of thirteen lynched souls.

Carla and Claude journey to Presidio County where the weather is torrid and the people are arctic. No one in Marfa cooperates with the law, especially since most locals figure a personal spat ended in a not so important to solve murder. However, after searching the victim’s home and finding a drug manufacturing facility there, the two rangers know there is more to this killing than a personal feud.

THE HANGMAN’S TREE is an interesting police procedural starring two wonderful Rangers. The who-done-it with its inquiry is entertaining, but the story line belongs to the two law enforcement officials and the remote Presidio County. Claude is an old fashioned cop who mistrusts electronic gizmos. Carla believes in automated, relational databases. Claude’s efforts to bury his attraction to his subordinate add to the tensions supplemented by the local residents who refuse to cooperate. Fans of a modern day Texas Ranger detective tale will enjoy Frederic Bean’s novel.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner