Multiple plot contrivances mar bestseller McGarrity's 13th mystery featuring former police chief Kevin Kerney (after 2008's Dead or Alive). Kevin is looking forward to celebrating his wife Sara Brannon's retirement from the U.S. Army when he gets a call from Isabel Istee-the mother of his New Mexico state policeman son, Clayton-who informs him that he's about to be arrested for murder. Flash back eight days to a groundbreaking ceremony for an artist-in-residence center, whose attendees include Clayton, the Spanish ambassador to the U.S., and the New Mexico governor. To the horror of those assembled, the backhoe unearths a human skeleton, subsequently identified as belonging to Kim Ward, a college friend of Kevin's who spent the night with him on the property back in 1973. The discovery of a gun near the remains matching one that Kevin reported missing two days after he spent time with Kim strengthens the case against him. The search for Kim's murderer lacks suspense, and readers without prior investment in the characters and their interpersonal dynamics aren't likely to be captivated by them. Agent: Marcy Posner, Folio Literary Management. (Oct.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Teenaged Kimberly Ward, pretty and popular, vanished one day forty-five years ago and the investigation went nowhere. Now a construction crew tearing up new ground unearths bones that are quickly identified as hers. A warrant goes out for the last person seen with her. He's author McGarrity's series hero Kevin Kerney, here a retired police chief. There's a twist: the cop compiling evidence against him is his son, police lieutenant Clayton Istee. This is an awkward situation for the characters and is likely to be so for readers, too, as they wonder what this whole effort is about. The meat of a mighty mystery is here: buried murder, drugs, betrayal, sniper fire, even allusions to cockfighting, but patient readers must perceive it from a distance, through the interstices of scenes that go nowhere. Stolen journal pages. A DEA agent who ran off with $5 million. The problem is the book needs a point of view. A narrator to be in charge of all this material. Recommended for readers who enjoy leisurely mysteries set in the Southwest.--Don Crinklaw Copyright 2018 Booklist

Retired Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney emerges from a long absence since his last outing (Dead or Alive, 2009) just in time to be wanted for murder.Looks like Kerney's wife, Brig. Gen. Sara Brannon, will have to put the party celebrating her retirement as commandant of the Army Military Police School on hold: The groundbreaking for the Edna Fergurson Center for Artists-in-Residence at New Mexico State has turned up the skeleton of Kim Ward, Kerney's college sweetheart, and now his former colleagues are baying at Kerney's heels to arrest him for murder. The evidence against him may not seem strongmonths after they'd broken up, he met her the night she went missing, deeply upsetting artist Edna Fergurson, who'd hoped they'd make a go of it, and that partial fingerprint on the cartridge taken from her skull just might be hisbut it's more evidence than they have against anybody else, and after 45 years, they're not inclined to look much further. Though his wife never questions his innocence, Kerney constantly has to fence with Lt. Clayton Istee, the long-unacknowledged son who's part of the investigation, and with NMSP Agent Paul Avery, who seems determined to nail him. Sara hires sharp lawyer Gary Dalquist to represent her husband, who identifies a more promising suspect in the decades-old case. But not even an apparently climactic shootout that leaves both the suspect and one of the officers who's gone up against him dead settles things for good because Kerney's nosing around has inadvertently led him to another perp who knows nothing about Kim Ward's murder but is up to his neck in an unrelated criminal enterprise that he's dangerously determined to preserve from official oversight.An unholy mess of more felonies than you can shake a stick atand that's only counting the ones committed by the good guys. Whether or not McGarrity's veteran hero beats the rap, the New Mexico legal system will never be the same. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.