A Lonesome Blood-Red Sun: The Bone Detective, A Dave Beckett Novel

A Lonesome Blood-Red Sun is the second book in the Dave Beckett series by best-selling American author, David Putnam. In 1984, Deputy Dave Beckett is working as a patrol cop out of Hesperia Station, catching crooks, unofficially mentoring rookies, covering for PTSD-affected colleagues, failing to stay under the radar of brass that dislike him, and hoping the standard of his work will count towards becoming a homicide detective. He has a case with a perpetrator still at large, one whose victim haunts him, one that he wants to follow up.

On top of that, his marriage has broken up, he's reconnected with the father who left when he was young, and he's trying to generously support his ex and their daughter financially. Despite a brutal divorce, he still has feelings for his ex, but those are tested when a pretty young Deputy from Victorville Station begs for his help. Together, he and Jimmie Poe make surprise arrests in two cases deemed "go-nowhere". Unfortunately, this time Dave's penchant for immature pranks blows back onto Jimmie.

Four years on, Dave's dubious methods for getting arrests has seen him relegated to Bone Detective, investigating the finds in the desert around San Bernadino, a popular place for body disposal. His preoccupation with arresting a drug-dealing murderer leads to a delay in following up a bone find. When he does, checking with neighbours in the area leads to a grisly find: the true fate of sweet Jimmie Poe, presumed to have abandoned her deputy job a few years earlier. But will his captain let him take part in the investigation?

The author's former career as a policeman certainly informs his work and the first part sometimes reads more like a memoir than a novel: a string of incidents that tend to paint the protagonist as impulsive and rather arrogant, if effective. The bullying, petty jealousies and use of questionable methods ring true, as does the unprofessional behaviour of some of his colleagues and the tacit approval of his immediate superiors, given his success rate.

There's plenty of good detective work in this police procedural, and lots of action building up to a nail-biting climax and ending with and a hefty body count, but there are unresolved issues, unexplained but significant incidents, and the major unresolved issue from the previous book is summarily dismissed with a few short lines. This ARC does have quite a lot of spelling errors and continuity issues that have, hopefully, been corrected for the final print version. Still very readable American crime fiction.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Level Best Books.