The Wind Knot

January 10, 2011
Offbeat characters help salvage Galligan's muddled fourth fly fishing mystery featuring Ned "Dog" Ogilvie (after 2008's The Clinch Knot). Dog has been a mess since his nine-year-old son drowned in the bathtub six years earlier while Ogilvie and his now ex-wife were arguing about tulips. Dog plans, again, to join his ex-wife at his child's grave in Boston for the anniversary of the boy's death. But during his journey in his motor home from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Dog finds the body of Heimo Kock, a randy power broker with many enemies, strangled with a fly line in the vehicle's bunk area. Concerned that the police won't believe he's innocent and to avoid delays, Dog dumps the body, but is spotted doing so by a bookmobile librarian, who attempts to make a citizen's arrest. The ensuing picaresque developments may tickle some funny bones, but those who prefer tight plots will be less charmed.

March 1, 2011
Six years after his sons accidental death, Ned Ogilvie, who calls himself Dog, decides hes had enough wallowing in self-pity. Intending to return home to face his bad memories, not to mention his ex-wife, Dog winds up ensnared in a small-town plot that revolves around the death of a local criminal, whose body Dog finds in his own RV. The cast of supporting characters could have walked off the pages of a Jim Thompson novel: Esofea Maria Smithback, the hateful librarian; Danny Tervo, her disreputable boyfriend; Bruce Lodge, the small-town sheriff; Margarite DuCharme, the deputy with a heavy secret; and Dolf Cook, the dead mans brother, whos as slippery as a bag of eels. As usual, Dog (The Clinch Knot, 2008), must try to solve a murder while keeping his own corpus out of troubles way. A deft mixture of crime and offbeat humor, the novel will appeal to fans of Thompson and David Goodis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)