A Lonesome Place for Dying

Starred review from February 1, 2024

Ethan Brand was in bad shape when he returned to Blaine, WA, after serving two tours in Afghanistan. He was then recruited by Blaine police chief Frank Keogh, whom Brand went on to work with for 15 years. Now Keogh has retired, and Brand is appointed police chief. On his first day, he receives a threatening note, and a murder victim is found by the railroad tracks--after a decade and a half in which there were only two murders in Blaine. Now he has to contend with a confrontational mayor who doesn't think Brand is up to the job, colleagues whom he's not sure he can trust, and a murder investigation. When a stranger in a white coat shows up in town, Brand suspects that he's either connected with the victim or part of the threat against Brand himself. Then there's the local crime family who run a cross-border operation into Canada, moving drugs and money, and maybe corpses. It's a lot to juggle during Brand's first days as police chief. VERDICT Chase (author of the Dave Wakeland detective novels under the name Sam Wiebe) debuts his lonesome, reflective lawman with this well-written, complex case. Fans of Craig Johnson's Longmire will enjoy.--Lesa Holstine

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Starred review from March 18, 2024
First-timer Chase’s standout procedural saddles newly minted police chief Ethan Brand with an overwhelming first few days on the job. When Ethan, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, takes over the department from his friend and mentor, Frank Keough, he expects relatively smooth sailing in the sleepy town of Blaine, Wash.—an expectation quickly shattered when he receives a death threat at his home and is called to the scene of a possible murder during his first day on the job. His lack of allies doesn’t help: Blaine’s mayor thinks Ethan’s incompetent; Brenda Lee Page, the department’s top deputy, wanted his job for herself; and Mal Keough, Frank’s loose-cannon cop son, proves difficult to rein in. Then another body turns up, after which a witness to the first murder goes missing, and locals report seeing a strange, unfamiliar figure stalking around town. As Ethan investigates—and tussles with a drug-smuggling local crime family in the process—he works to suppress his own scandalous secrets, lest they derail his career and stop him from preventing further violence. Chase throws a lot of balls in the air, and he juggles them like a seasoned pro, managing to carve out a distinctly memorable protagonist in the process. It’s an auspicious debut. Agent: Chris Casuccio, Westwood Creative Artists.

April 1, 2024
Other than a tour with the US Army in Iraq, Ethan Brand has lived in Blaine, Washington, his entire life. After an Iraqi IED cost him part of his foot, he came home, married, and joined the Blaine police force. Fifteen years later, his wife leaves him, taking their two kids. When Ethan is appointed police chief, he has four strikes against him: failing to disclose what Blaine's mayor calls his "disability" of wearing a prosthetic foot; firing the mayor's nephew from the force; having an affair with the wife of Blaine's wealthiest citizen; and inheriting a deputy who thinks she should have gotten his job. But these problems fade when a woman's body is found by the railroad tracks. Ethan suspects the involvement of violent local drug dealers, but proving it is tough. Being chased, shot at, and threatened doesn't stop him, and his bravery, cleverness, and tenacity eventually net the result he wants. Fans of Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone and Lee Child's Jack Reacher will find much to like in this flawed but decent and principled hero.

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