Donald Harstad: The Known Dead

Fourth Estate

$29.95

Review: Gilbert Wong*

Harstad, a former cop, produces another serving of his protagonist, the laconic heartland American Carl Houseman, deputy sheriff of National County, Iowa. Houseman is a bit of a good ol' boy, putting on the weight, not particularly handy with a firearm, but his brain keeps ticking behind the unglamorous exterior.

As the county investigator, Houseman is first on hand in what looks like a cannabis-surveillance job gone wrong. A cop is dead and the murderers seem to be drug dealers. Houseman is less sure. Harstad's edge in this genre is his inside knowledge of the procedures and etiquette when country, state and federal law enforcement agencies work the same case. As we suspect, they spend a lot of time treading on each other's flat feet and entitling folders "Need to know."

Harstad brings in a neat twist, right-wing militia groups portrayed as loopy enough to believe every sub-X-File conspiracy theory going.

The way Houseman tracks down his quarry over cyberspace is particularly clever. And the writer does not head off into romantic or domestic digressions. Harstad knows to stick to what he can write convincingly about.

As for the title, it's an opportunity for Harstad to exercise his dislike for a common media shorthand. When there's been a shooting, reporters ask who are the known dead. I know why they ask the question, but Harstad, who must have been at death scenes, hates the apparent callousness of the question.