Review: Desert Run

Desert Run Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Betty Webb
Class/Genre: Mystery Private Investigator Woman Main Character
Series: Lena Jones # 4
Poisoned Pen Press, March 2006, Hardcover, 347 pages

During World War II the U.S. military established prisoner of war camps in various locations around the country. One of them was outside Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1944, after an extended period of digging a tunnel in the desert sand, twenty-five prisoners escaped the camp into the Arizona wilderness. In 1944 that wilderness was a lot closer to the city limits than it is today. There was a nasty incident in the camp in 1944 when a prisoner was found hanged to death after he had obviously been tortured by fellow prisoners. This much is fact.

In 2005, in Betty Webb's excellent novel, a film company comes to Scottsdale to make a documentary about the camp and about the great escape and its aftermath. Private detective Lena Jones is hired to provide security for the film company and the shooting locations and equipment. Normally, not a particularly difficult job. But then, an old man living quietly in Scottsdale, a man confined to a wheelchair, is murdered. Turns out the old man, in his nineties, was, in a former life, a U-Boat captain in the German navy. He was, apparently, the sole surviving inmate of the camp and was being wooed by the documentarian to appear in the film.

It's a tough and distracting time for Lena, her long-time partner is leaving the firm for a new job, her former boss and good friend at the Scottsdale Police Department is retiring to New York, and as usual, Lena's love-life is essentially non-existent. So she's vulnerable in several ways.

When the old German ex-inmate's home health aide is tagged for the murder, he turns to Lena for help. Unable to resist the man's sad story of innocence and destitution, Lena signs on. From this point on the reader enters a judiciously labyrinthine maze. There is blood aplenty in this dark tale and the author's careful and clever sprinkling of clues and red herrings, along with some clever misdirection is masterful. In every sense, this is a fine mystery. Webb's pace is on the mark, her use of historical reality infuses the book with a fine sensibility; the dialogue is sparkling and the author's use of place is excellent. This is a most satisfying novel.

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

Book Review: Desert Run