Tularosa

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Summary: Authentic Feel
Review: I grew up on a working cattle ranch, and this modern western tale conjers the smells of the ranch. The dialog and characterizations just feel right. I read Mexican Hat first, and then found Tularosa. Now I'm addicted to the series. If you know how to sit a horse, you'll know McGaritty does, too.

A taut, suspenseful, and fulfilling mystery in a southwestern setting.

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Summary: Kevin Kerney isn't a John wayne, more like Henry Fonda.
Review: I met this author at a book signing in Las Cruces, NM. I bought that first book and the two after it.My husband and daughters have hunted the area he talks about & his book passed their critical eye. Infact the main character just feels good and"would do to ride the river with"

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Summary: A 'believable' south west mystery.
Review: I picked this up on a whim in a need to satisfy my curiosity on a south west mystery genre usually dominated by Tony Hillerman or J.A. Jance, and I was pleasantly surprised.

What you won't find here is a lot of Native American spirituality or beliefs, and gone are the all to traditional Navajo lore so custom to these books. But you will find a very well written novel that is very believable and exciting to read.

Main character Kevin Kerney (formerly a cop) has been spending the last few years in the Santa Fe area as a ranch/handy man and is approached by his former partner (and former friend) to locate his missing son. It seems Kerney's godson (a soldier out of White Sands Missile Range) is missing, and Kerney make the trip down south to locate the boy.

Enter Sara Brannon, she's a captain in the military and is in charge of the military cases on the base. Reluctant in helping Kerney at first, they soon both uncover a mystery that goes beyond just the awol soldier.

About 1/2 way through the book, a new story begins. It looks as if it is a totally separate and isolated incident from the one that Kerney and Brannon are working on, and we have the introduction of some new characters. Their adventures take them just south of the border of Texas and New Mexico into a sleazy border town in Mexico itself, run by a local drug lord. The plot reveals missing antiques worth a whole lot of money to someone. This story in itself is exciting and even becomes more so as soon, the two stories become inter-twined with each other.

With everyone after the missing goods and how this ties into some of the cases back at White Sands, a much larger conspiracy is uncovered and Kerney and Sara must do everything they can just to stay alive.

The climax was good and left the reader satisfied. There was a small twist at the end, that unlike most other endings, not everything turns out the way it should have. The players here do not return to the norm.

McGarrity writes well. His descriptions of landscapes and towns are accurate as I myself have been to these areas. The overall pace of the book is good, never to slow, and yet actions are not hurried to get to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Not a great book
Review: I read a lot of mysteries, some great and others not so. I stumbled across this the other day and thought I'd give it a shot. It became fairly obvious right from the beginning that this is the author's first attempt at writing. The story starts out unbelievable and only gets worse, (an ex-cop gets a lieutenant's badge, just like that, from his friend who is a sheriff, so he can investigate the disappearance of a soldier from a local base). The main characters are just too wonderful to be real-no flaws in this macho man and whatever the equivalent word is for his lady friend- and why does there always have to be a romance between the hero and the first attractive woman he meets? This whole romance bit is just too lame for words and you know it's going to happen as soon as the writer introduces, in glowing terms, this wonderful, ever-so-lovely and capable heroine. Do the editors insist on this to attract women readers? I gave the book two stars for the writers fairly decent description of the New Mexico scenery, even though these descriptive bits seem very often to be just an afterthought.

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Summary: Tularosa Too Bad
Review: I really wanted to like "Tularosa." I had accidentally happened upon it while searching Amazon for books about my hometown area in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico.

Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my hopes. While I did enjoy the setting and scenic descriptions that brought back many memories, I found the plot to be too obviously contrived and much of the dialogue to be stiff and unnatural.

The story had the potential to be quite entertaining but too many times things just conveniently happened out of sheer coincidence, conveniently putting the hero (Kevin Kerney, retired cop and all-around good guy) in the right place at the right time. Heroes almost always end up in the right place at the right time, but most of them get there in ways that are more believable than in this book.

Realizing this is McGarrity's first effort in what has become a fairly popular continuing series, it may be unfair to be overly critical. I plan to give him another try with one of his later novels, but I can't recommend "Tularosa."

Rating:
Summary: Good plot but mediocre writing
Review: I really wanted to like this book: the plot is interesting, it's set in a fascinating and off-the-beaten-track part of New Mexico, the characters are a great cross-section of NM, and the author is a heck of a nice guy (I've met him socially). BUT the writing is flat, there are careless errors (on one page someone jumps out of a window; on the next page the same incident is described again, and this time the guy sneaks out the back door!), and I found the female characters predictable (either Madonnas or sexpots). It's a Chinese dinner of a book: spicy and exciting, but not very satisfying (you're hungry again an hour later).

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Summary: Better Late than Never!
Review: I saw a review of one of his newer books and, thinking he was a new writer, looked for it. Then I discovered that he has been published since 1996 and I'd missed him- but I won't let that happen again! This is a first-rate book and, hopefully, series. Kevin Kerney is an intriguing character with lots of layers to be probed. The plot is intriguing although the ending is a bit contrived and the scenery is vivid. I think Kerney is very much like Jake Reacher in the Lee Child's series and I hope he stays that way. An educated and capable vagabond makes a great main character!

Rating:
Summary: Better Late than Never!
Review: I saw a review of one of his newer books and, thinking he was a new writer, looked for it. Then I discovered that he has been published since 1996 and I'd missed him- but I won't let that happen again! This is a first-rate book and, hopefully, series. Kevin Kerney is an intriguing character with lots of layers to be probed. The plot is intriguing although the ending is a bit contrived and the scenery is vivid. I think Kerney is very much like Jake Reacher in the Lee Child's series and I hope he stays that way. An educated and capable vagabond makes a great main character!

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Summary: Desert suspense makes for fine debut
Review: In McGarrity's first novel ex-Santa Fe cop Kevin Kerney, derailed by a shot-up knee, takes a break from retirement when Navajo cop Terry Yazzi, his former partner and the man responsible for his injury, asks him to find his son.

The younger Yazzi, Sammy, is listed as AWOL from the high-security White Sands Missile Range. But Sammy is conscientious and was content with his work ? not a likely candidate for running off.

Kerney's investigation leads him first to army investigator Sara Brannon, a sharp-eyed woman who doesn't miss a trick. After a rocky start, the two join forces on a trek which takes them into the regions' past ? from the recent days of struggle between ranchers like Kerney's family and the military who dispossessed them to more distant days of armies and Indians.

McGarrity's characters emerge as real people and the desert landscape is as beguiling as it is harsh while the tangled conspiracy unravels with nail biting, page turning excitement. A fine debut.

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Summary: AUSPICIOUS DEBUT
Review: In this debut novel in the Kevin Kerney series, Michael McGarrity introduces us to a retired Santa Fe police detective who wants nothing more to own his own ranch and live peacefully. Of course, if that happened, there'd be no novels! At any rate, Kerney who was critically wounded during a drug bust is faced with a request for assistance from the partner who let him down. Reservation sheriff Terry Yazzi asks Kerney to help locate his son, who has been reported AWOL from his army base. Kerney is young Sammy's godfather, and this is what induces him to take up the search.
Nothing is as it seems in this search, however; Sammy may have stumbled upon something that led to his disappearance. Rare artifacts are being stolen and shipped out, and Sammy may have discovered this. Kerney teams up with tough Sara Brannon, the army's investigator, and becomes embroiled in a plot as thick as molasses.
McGarrity has a way of introducing you to his settings and characters that is primal and informative, without bogging down his plot. Kerney is a tough, likeable hero, and you root for him against the inumerable bad guys.
Gutsy and down to earth; well written and involving. A good series.