Known Dead

With a singular voice, a spellbinding insider perspective on small-town heartland crime-solving, and a cast of characters straight out of a Coen brothers movie, Known Dead solidifies Donald Harstad's growing reputation as the finest new voice in crime fiction.

No one knows the underbelly of Nation County, Iowa, better than Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman. But with thirteen hundred-odd miles of hills and curves to negotiate in the county's 750-square-mile border, there's only so much territory he can cover in an eight-hour shift. Time passes slowly riding alone, but when lives are measured in seconds and backup could be hours away, one false move can get a cop killed.

In Known Dead, Carl hits the ground running when he hears the call sign "officer needs assistance." As the blistering summer sun beats down on him, Carl steps into the middle of a war zone in an isolated and densely wooded patch of land. With two known dead and sixty-seven empty shell casings from any number of high-powered weapons, Carl has no clue about why or where the guns are pointing. Sheriff Lamar Ridgeway and DCI agent Hester Gorse are on their way, but Carl knows he's riding point; and for the life of him, he can't separate the killers from the kill.

Filled with deadpan humor and brilliant police procedural narrative, Known Dead could only have been written by a man who's been in a heartland patrol car himself.