Review: Chasing A Blond Moon

This is the third entry in the so called "Woods Cop" series, featuring Grady Service, who works for the Department of Natural Resources in Michigan's upper peninsula. He derived deep pleasure from field work, and in this volume he deals with the frustrations of being "kicked upstairs" to a position with more administrative responsibility. In part he deals with this frustration by returning to the field as often as he can justify the effort and the results of his involvement.

Local law enforcement officers have found a dead body in a car - but in the back seat of the vehicle they also find a pile of bear excrement along with fibers and other trace evidence indicating that a bear actually had been riding along at some point. This discovery kicks off a rather confusing chain of experiences for Grady, involving a incestuous family group living in the area (who have figured prominently in the other books in this series), a state wide political campaign, Grady's college age son, several tramps through a late fall wilderness, a number of physical encounters resulting in minor injuries to Grady, trips to Wisconsin to follow up leads, a great deal of driving back and forth, all against the backdrop of identifying the original dead body and determining who killed the man. This effort often gets lost in the shuffle as all the other events unfold. Along the way we are treated to numerous reminders that Grady and the lady in his life share a healthy, mutually satisfying sex life. While Heywood doesn't include any explicit erotic passages, for this reader's taste, he made this point a little too often.

Other reviewers of various books have often expressed impatience with authors who have compiled a great deal of research in preparing to write and then felt compelled to get everything into the book somehow, whether the inclusion detracted from the quality of the overall effort or not. I wonder if Heywood fell victim to this compulsion. His acknowledgments thank several DNR officers who let him ride along on their tours of duty, perhaps it was too tempting for Heywood to resist including actual colorful encounters in his book.

Grady Service is an appealing character, and I have enjoyed this series. I'll certainly read more entries as they appear. But this book is too full of distracting side trips which make it very difficult to follow the main thread of the story.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM

Book Review: Chasing A Blond Moon