Book Review: Dead Soul

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dead Soul     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
James D. Doss
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Ethnic   Police Procedural
Series: Charles Moon # 8
St. Martin’s, Sept 2003, $24.95, 352 pp.

Senator Patch Davidson, senior member of the Judiciary Committee, waits for his chauffeur Billy Smoke, a member of the Southern Ute tribe of Southern Colorado, to pick him up. However, someone assaults him hitting the Senator in the head and repeatedly in the knees. When Patch wakes up in the hospital, he realizes that he is a paraplegic and Billy is dead. Tribal Chairman Oscar Sweetwater asks Columbine ranch owner Charlie Moon, a part time investigator for the tribe, to make inquiries into the deadly incident.

Charlie concludes that no one had a valid reason to kill Billy and lets the matter drop. Four months later, Oscar asks Charlie to meet him at the Senator’s Boxcar Ranch because someone is leaking sensitive material to a foreign country. Patch wants to find out who it is and how it’s being done. Charlie figures out that there were two men who attacked the Senator and killed Billy and the leak started with them. As Charlie comes closer to identifying the assault duo, he also realizes that the person committing treason will attack him if he knew how close the sleuth has come to uncovering the truth.

James D. Doss’ protagonist is not a typical private eye as he is a former policeman content to run his ranch; Charlie Moon does not rely on brute strength to get the job done. In his own way the hero is a genius who outthinks his opponent while keeping a sense of humor. DEAD SOUL is a very entertaining thought-provoking novel that grabs and keeps reader attention.

Harriet Klausner

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