Cactus Heart

Mapstone is the kind of modern hero many readers dream of: intellectual but physical, tough but sensitive. Deputy sheriff David Mapstone's background as a history professor serves him well when he stumbles-quite literally-onto a very cold case in Talton's engaging fifth mystery (after 2006's Arizona Dreams ), a prequel set in 1999. One night, after leaving a pro hockey game in Phoenix, Mapstone; his girlfriend, Lindsey Adams; and his boss, Mike Peralta, interrupt a carjacking. They pursue the perp into an abandoned warehouse, where Mapstone falls down an elevator shaft. At the bottom are the bodies of two small children, who turn out to be the Yarnell twins, kidnapped in the 1930s from the most powerful man in the region, cattle baron Hayden Yarnell. Talton does his usual competent job of depicting the history of Phoenix and the American West, in particular the greed that has driven the city's growth and the desert's demise. Mapstone is the kind of modern hero many readers dream of: intellectual but physical, tough but sensitive. (May) --Publishers Weekly In an entertaining prequel, Talton tells how series hero David Mapstone got to be the way he is. The History Shamus was born on the December day in 1999 which Prof. David Mapstone failed to get tenure at San Diego State. Through the agency of old friend Mike Peralta, Chief Deputy of Maricopa County (Ariz.), the hunky ex-history professor got a badge, a gun and, according to some, a sinecure: a case list of undemanding, go-through-the-motions ice-cold no-hopers. But Mapstone was about to get lucky 58 years after the twin four-year-old grandsons of cattle baron Hayden Yarnell were abducted. The ransom was paid and the kidnapper eventually caught, but the children were never found. Almost by accident, Mapstone is on the scene when the little bodies are discovered in an abandoned building. As a consequence, he begins a pro forma investigation that suddenly intensifies when it becomes clear that the man convicted and executed for the crime could not possibly have committed it -- and when it becomes equally clear that the rich and powerful Yarnell family is also secretive and dissembling. The prose can go over the top now and then, but this fifth in the series (after Arizona Dreams, 2006, etc.) -- tightly plotted, smartly paced and enlivened by dollops of enthusiastic sex -- is purple-proof. Talton's best yet. --Kirkus Reviews In an entertaining prequel, Talton tells how series hero David Mapstone got to be the way he is. The History Shamus was born on the December day in 1999 which Prof. David Mapstone failed to get tenure at San Diego State. Through the agency of old friend Mike Peralta, Chief Deputy of Maricopa County (Ariz.), the hunky ex-history professor got a badge, a gun and, according to some, a sinecure: a case list of undemanding, go-through-the-motions ice-cold no-hopers. But Mapstone was about to get lucky 58 years after the twin four-year-old grandsons of cattle baron Hayden Yarnell were abducted. The ransom was paid and the kidnapper eventually caught, but the children were never found. Almost by accident, Mapstone is on the scene when the little bodies are discovered in an abandoned building. As a consequence, he begins a pro forma investigation that suddenly intensifies when it becomes clear that the man convicted and executed for the crime could not possibly have committed it -- and when it becomes equally clear that the rich and powerful Yarnell family is also secretive and dissembling. The prose can go over the top now and then, but this fifth in the series (after Arizona Dreams, 2006, etc.) -- tightly plotted, smartly paced and enlivened by dollops of enthusiastic sex -- is purple-proof. Talton's best yet. --Kirkus Reviews