The Crying Tree: First of the Detective Patrick Valdez Mystery Series
Meet Detective Patrick Valdez, Val to his friends and colleagues, Patrick to himself and his family: young, handsome, driven, recently dumped by his girlfriend because of the driven part. Former Army Ranger, decorated for combat valor. Hired on by a group of small Massachusetts towns that, facing deep austerity cuts, have banded together to pay him what he's sure must be the lowest salary known to man.
A cushy job, investigating break-ins and conservation land infractions? Not. On village greens and beneath proper New England exteriors, inside shingled capes and clapboard colonials, passions explode and corpses abound. Thus a frosty January afternoon finds Patrick at a woodland crime scene, gazing on the mortal remains of Isobel Thorn, the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Which for him is saying a good deal. Is it murder? Without a doubt.
So begins The Crying Tree. No witnesses, just the sound of male and female voices arguing and the word enough, or perhaps it was Roland, according to the elderly dog walker who discovers the body. Not much to go on. Patrick and his partner, Thomas Ames, undertake the quest for justice, which, Patrick knows, is code for sifting through the detritus of lost lives, lies large and small, the seemingly inconsequential choices that lead to fatal outcomes. Why do Isobel's nearest and dearest seem less than shocked at her death? Who was Isobel's mysterious lover? The physical investigation takes the detectives no farther afield than New York City, but what of the more troublesome journey, the one threading through the labyrinth of love and betrayal? Pretty much boundless. In the end, Patrick, a veteran of Afghanistan, looks back upon that search and adds the human heart to his ever-growing list of The Most Dangerous Places on the Face of the Earth.
A cushy job, investigating break-ins and conservation land infractions? Not. On village greens and beneath proper New England exteriors, inside shingled capes and clapboard colonials, passions explode and corpses abound. Thus a frosty January afternoon finds Patrick at a woodland crime scene, gazing on the mortal remains of Isobel Thorn, the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Which for him is saying a good deal. Is it murder? Without a doubt.
So begins The Crying Tree. No witnesses, just the sound of male and female voices arguing and the word enough, or perhaps it was Roland, according to the elderly dog walker who discovers the body. Not much to go on. Patrick and his partner, Thomas Ames, undertake the quest for justice, which, Patrick knows, is code for sifting through the detritus of lost lives, lies large and small, the seemingly inconsequential choices that lead to fatal outcomes. Why do Isobel's nearest and dearest seem less than shocked at her death? Who was Isobel's mysterious lover? The physical investigation takes the detectives no farther afield than New York City, but what of the more troublesome journey, the one threading through the labyrinth of love and betrayal? Pretty much boundless. In the end, Patrick, a veteran of Afghanistan, looks back upon that search and adds the human heart to his ever-growing list of The Most Dangerous Places on the Face of the Earth.