The Wheat Field (Mysteries & Horror)

Rating:
Summary: MASTERFUL TALE OF POLITICAL MAYHEM AND MURDER
Review: Murder and politics equal excitement, which is precisely what Steve Thayer generously serves in his fifth novel, "The Wheat Field."

It is 1960, the year of Nixon's presidential campaign, and the setting is supposedly serene Kickapoo Falls, Wisconsin. Serenity isn't in the air or, for that matter, in the wheat field where the naked bodies of Maggie and Michael Butler are found by a local farmer. They both have been shot - is it a murder/suicide?

Deputy Pliny Pennington, who has been in love with the once gorgeous Maggie since high school days, doesn't think so. Questions abound, such as the condition of the field. The wheat has been evenly pressed down in a circle around the bodies with no evidence of tire or foot tracks. Stranger yet is the fact that there is no clothing nearby, yet both bodies apparently left this world as they came into it.

Sheriff Fats soon arrives on the scene along with Trooper Russ Hoffmeyer who confides that he was once invited to join a menage a trois with Maggie and Michael. While Pliny is chagrined to hear that there are even more shocking revelations in the offing. Some of these dangerous secrets involve the most prominent citizens in Kickapoo Falls.

Thayer masterfully unravels his tale against a backdrop of Wisconsin politics and personal foibles.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Good read, lots of porn....
Review: THE WHEAT FIELD by Steve Thayer is not the type of mystery I ordinarily read. I usually prefer women writers and/or mysteries set in England or American crime stories with hard-boiled female heros like Kay Scarpetta or Stephanie Plum. I was drawn to Thayer's book because the setting is Wisconsin--a state I have known and loved all my life. I think Thayer handled his descriptions of various places in Wisconsin pretty well.

Thayer's story is a compelling tale I read in a half day. This is the kind of book you take on a long plane flight or to the beach. Thayer is an excellent writer whose style is reminiscient of Hemingway's (not a particular favorite of mine but he wrote well). More than one aspect of THE WHEAT FIELD reminded me of THE SUN ALSO RISES.

Thayer's characterization of Pliny Pennington is believable. Pliny seems to be a cross between Forrest Gump and Micky Spillane and although there was a time when I would not have belived such a fellow could exist I now know there are innocents who are worldly-wise. Besides, Pliny the protagonist is relating the events in this story years later. Some of the dumb things he did as a younger man he would not have done in later life after he "wized" up.

Pliny is the Deputy Sherif of Kickapoo County, and although this book has been characterized as a "police procedural" it is not. There are NO forensics. Even though Pliny is a law enforcement officer, I would characterize him as more akin to the 1950s detective--you know the guy who was always in some kind of trouble because he trusted untrustworthy adversaries and was not above breaking the law himself. The other characters in this novel are shallowly drawn and generally as unlikable as the characters in a Mickey Spillane novel.

Thayer includes a good deal of pornography. He may have thought it was necessary for the plot, but his graphic descriptions seem a bit gratuitous at times. He introduces a character who knows a bit about voyeurism (a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin), a sort of "profiler" Pliny says. His unraveling of the plot stretches credibility at times. I figured out who the murderer was in the early part of the book. I think I mostly stuck with the book because it is a good read and I had to see what became of Pliny. This book will not appeal to Republicans.

Rating:
Summary: The way a thriller should be!
Review: You'd expect thrillers of this caliber from more well-established authors, such as Stephen Hunter or Nelson DeMille. However, Steve Thayer--who I'd never heard of until I picked up this book--unleashes upon the world a thriller as good as they get!

Kickapoo Falls, Wisconsin, located in the beautiful Dells region. The year is 1960, a tumultuous year that revolved around two men: John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

In Kickapoo Falls, however, something else has come up. Two bodies, naked, gruesomely murdered, found in a crop circle in the middle of a wheat field. No witnesses--at least none who aren't implicated. Deputy Pliny Pennington identifies one of the bodies as Maggie Butler--a former childhood friend, and the girl he'd been lusting after for most of his life.

It's no secret that Pennington wanted Maggie, and she wouldn't have him. In fact, now the town's beginning to think Pennington had something to do with it--except, of course, for the people who know the truth. For Maggie's death is just a small part in a conspiracy reaching further than Pennington could have ever dreamed. Now, using the skills gained by a stint as a military sniper and former deer hunter, Pennington is about to face the ultimate test of survival, as he races against enemies, shady characters in suits, former friends--and himself.

Steve Thayer's writing is brisk and clear. He sidesteps from the plot every now in then, but only to give you a better insight into who Pliny Pennington really is--and make you wonder if you can trust his narration. "The Wheat Field" is a novel of sex, violence, and the quest for the truth--no matter how much it may hurt.