A Long December

Rating:
Summary: Trouble comes to Nation County, Iowa.
Review: Carl Houseman is the deputy sheriff of Nation County, Iowa, and the laconic narrator of Donald Harstad's new thriller, "A Long December." Carl is also the department's senior investigator, and it is his job to figure out who shot an unidentified male, execution style, in a remote area called Frog Hollow. Was this death related to a drug deal gone sour? Working along with Iowa DCI agent Hester Gorse, Houseman finds out that this crime is just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg that may have national implications.

The main characters in "A Long December" are a likable bunch, and they have a matter-of-fact and businesslike attitude towards danger. Their dry humor and amiable camaraderie make them very easy to take. It is also refreshing to read a crime thriller that takes places in the nation's heartland rather than in a major metropolitan area.

One irritating aspect of this book, however, is the repeated shifting back and forth in time between a gun battle and the events that led up to the shootout. This dizzying flashback device is a needless annoyance that serves no dramatic purpose. Harstad would have done better in this case to have Houseman tell his story in a more linear manner.

Still, "A Long December" has much to recommend it. It raises some timely themes about our dangerous world and the men and women who risk their lives to defend us. The plot is complex and engrossing and the author provides some fascinating information about how investigations are conducted. It may not be flashy or glitzy, but "A Long December" gets the job done.

Rating:
Summary: Trouble comes to Nation County, Iowa.
Review: Carl Houseman is the deputy sheriff of Nation County, Iowa, and the laconic narrator of Donald Harstad's new thriller, "A Long December." Carl is also the department's senior investigator, and it is his job to figure out who shot an unidentified male, execution style, in a remote area called Frog Hollow. Was this death related to a drug deal gone sour? Working along with Iowa DCI agent Hester Gorse, Houseman finds out that this crime is just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg that may have national implications.

The main characters in "A Long December" are a likable bunch, and they have a matter-of-fact and businesslike attitude towards danger. Their dry humor and amiable camaraderie make them very easy to take. It is also refreshing to read a crime thriller that takes places in the nation's heartland rather than in a major metropolitan area.

One irritating aspect of this book, however, is the repeated shifting back and forth in time between a gun battle and the events that led up to the shootout. This dizzying flashback device is a needless annoyance that serves no dramatic purpose. Harstad would have done better in this case to have Houseman tell his story in a more linear manner.

Still, "A Long December" has much to recommend it. It raises some timely themes about our dangerous world and the men and women who risk their lives to defend us. The plot is complex and engrossing and the author provides some fascinating information about how investigations are conducted. It may not be flashy or glitzy, but "A Long December" gets the job done.

Rating:
Summary: The Coffee's Still On, But Beware the Beef!
Review: Former Iowa Deputy Sheriff Donald Harstad has written another fine thriller/mystery/police procedural. You need not have read the previous adventures, but it helps. The Nation County gang's all here. The coffee's brewing, and so is the plot: what if terrorists found a way to poison the beef bound for fast food burgers? It's initially disconcerting - flopping and wobbling like a Mad Cow - back and forth from a time certain to some time on an undisclosed date. But perseverance pays off and the reader comes to understand Who's On First, when, and why. The book has the humour and self-effacing good nature of many rural mid-western law enforcement folks. I heartily recommend it. As they say in the commercials: It's beefy, juicy, big and bouncy! Reviewed by TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer.

Rating:
Summary: Long December? Great Reading!
Review: Harstad just keeps getting better and better. "A Long December" is a gripping story with explosive action that will shakes the dust off your rafters! If he weren't so good writing crime-stories, Harstad could probably give humorist Dave Barry a run for his money. Those who like stories that are crazy enough to be believable; those who like the idiosyncracies of small-town and rural life; and those who like looking at the world through the eyes of people who have to lay it on the line, you'll enjoy this one immensely. Every one of Harstad's books leaves me eager to read his next one!

Rating:
Summary: Keep 'em coming!
Review: I grew up in 'Nation County, Iowa' and although he gives each of the towns in the county a fictional name it is easy to recognize them all. I have a hard time putting these books down and have read all the books in the series and am now waiting for the next. It is disconcerting to imagine the types of crimes he describes actually happening there. However he makes them so realistic that it can send shivers down my spine at times. Do I recommend this book and the others by Donald Harstad? You betcha!

Rating:
Summary: Great story
Review: I have read all of the books in this series and they seem to just get better. It is refreshing to read a story set in the midwest where things are a little more laid back than in the big cities. Mr. Harstad has created several interesting characters and continues to develop them in each story. I especially like the fact that the male and female officers can work together in these stories without having a romantic attraction. It is just about cops doing their job and in Nation county they do it well.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read, But Was Rural Iowa Ever This Exiting?
Review: I was an early fan of Harstad's series (he's a real-life lawman in NE Iowa), but he's facing the same problem as Archer Mayor, another real-life rural cop -- how in the heck do you write a series set in a place where, in real life, nothing much ever happens beyond domestic violence and drunk & disorderly?

For the most part, Mayor has concentrated on local color and a drawing a fine and very accurate portrait of low-life milltown New England. His mayhem has mostly remained realistic -- crooked real estate developers, out-of-control drug dealers, etc.

Harstad, on the other hand, has opted for extra-crunchy police procedure (one volume even has a glossary of 10-codes) and an ever escalating collection of improbable "hell comes to Ioway" scenarios. I won't give away anything, but let's just say this one is very post-9/11. I can't imagine how he'll top himself unless the next novel contains a Martian invasion.

The emphasis on bigger and better catastrophes has sorta moved the series halfway between police procedural and thriller. I still like them just fine, and Harstad remains an excellent writer, but I kinda wish he'd stopped at the "mysterious Satanic cult invades Iowa" level of improbability.

Other than that, the series remains quite consistent, including the fact that each story finds office Houseman barely coming home to sleep, and that his wife is encountered largely through notes she leaves on the fridge. The cast of continuing characters is still here, including "George of the Bureau" and the formidable dispatcher Sally, and Harstad still has a keen and funny eye for the absurdities of organizational politics.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful
Review: ISBN: 1-59071-013-4
Title: A Long December
Author: Donald Harstad
Publisher: Bantam Books
Carl Housman, deputy sheriff of 750-square-mile Nation County, Iowa, prides himself on keeping his bit of the Heartland safe. It's December and Iowa is steeped in cold weather and waiting for first snow when Houseman's calm is shattered: eighty-plus-year-old Heinman brothers witness an execution style murder. In the midst of the investigation another, what appears to be, unrelated death is reported. Suddenly the county is flooded with a plethora of crime agencies. Careful detective work links the deaths and with the help of his favorite snitch, Houseman helps to uncover a sinister terrorist plot that encompasses the local, newly-turned-kosher, meat packing plant. Duplicate social security numbers, fictitious names and birth records hamper the investigation. Harstad opens "A Long December" with police officials pinned down in a barn in an out-of-the-way area of the county. The author moves the plot forward by swinging between the narratives beginning and the scenes in the barn. Using familiar characters, detail-oriented style and non-stop action, Harstad has penned another best-seller. If you have never picked up a Harstad novel, do so today and you too will become a fan of this gifted writer.
Beverly J Scott author of "Righteous Revenge" and "Ruth Fever." Reviewer for Intriguing Authors and Their Books at http://www.funeralassociates.com/authors.htm

Rating:
Summary: Houseman is finally back
Review: It's been well worth the wait for this latest adventure featuring the food-loving Deputy Carl Houseman, Detective Hester Gorse, Dispatcher Sally, George of the Bureau, Cheif Lamar, and Doc Zimmer. The action starts with the first four pinned down in a barn facing killers with AK47's and thereafter every chapter alternates between this crisis and the developing investigation that began a few days earlier with an execution-style killing on a rural road. This narrative style can be somewhat disruptive, but here the juxtaposition of the two timeframes seems to work well. The two merge later in the story when the action really picks up.
Harstad is very good at taking the reader with him on patrol, and you almost feel you recognise the folk he meets, those tough WWII vets the Heinman brothers 'too old to go easy', the naive trooper, 'super special agent' Milton Hawse, the young but very loyal Hector Gonzalez (whom I'd like to meet again in another story), Special Agent Volont, and of course Big Ears the puppy. We also get to see a bit more of Houseman's long-suffering wife, Sue. I have always felt she was under-utilised as a character, but I know this is an accurate reflection of the life of a police officers' partner when an investigation is running hot, and to push her forward wouldn't aid the plot. The humour is still present, with Houseman being jibed about his diet by Hester and Sally, and Sally's over-preparation for the campout brought a long laugh. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and recommend the whole Houseman series.

Rating:
Summary: Like a warm fire and soft slippers -- with a punch
Review: Once again I am delighted with this author's unpretentious engagement that draws me into the life of a small county law enforcement agency policing amidst the corn fields and pig pens of rural Iowa. This story is technically trickier than previous Carl Houseman stories, and Harstad pulls it off masterfully. Half the action takes place during a siege in which the main character, chief investigator Houseman, and his law enforcement buddies are trapped in an old barn by automatic fire from unknown assailants. Interspersed with the siege story, the other half takes place in the days leading up to the siege. The basic plot answers the question, How does the execution murder of a small time Latino hustler with dubious drug involvement tie into an international plot to poison and kill thousands, starting with the Jewish patrons of a kosher meat packing plant in rural Iowa? I don't know what engages me more -- the tightly constructed, thoroughly believable trail of clues leading inexorably to the yet unexpected resolution, or the equally addicting wry, dry, self-deprecating and witty observations of investigator Houseman. I found myself chuckling out loud at his various droll comments, like when he was in the emergency room, trying to avoid being interviewed by the press, and finally deciding that trying to climb through the rest room's small window would only result in bigger press coverage of an aging, stocky law man stuffed half in and half out of a bathroom window. Houseman's humor brings a completely believable authenticity to law enforcement activity that is too often presented as mysterious and miraculous. What other mystery novelists would think to let us in on the true secrets of a good stakeout -- lots of good food and a battery operated heater? I laughed out loud at the picture of the four member team in multi-layered winter clothing struggling up the farmyard drive with multiple rifles, shotguns, sidearms, and ammunition -- and a bright red cooler full of "hot coffee, water, and sandwiches, and pop, and string cheese, and pretzels, and trail mix, and tea . . . " (258). And don't forget the thermos of minestrone and the Girl Scout cookies! I have two lists of favorite mystery writers -- those I pick up when they come out in paperback, and those that are worth first edition hardcovers. Harstad is absolutely on my first edition list!