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RISKY UNDERTAKING
by Mark de Castrique
Poisoned Pen, November 2014
251 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1464203067


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Set in the Appalachian Mountains not far from the Great Smokies National Park and bordered by a Cherokee Indian Reservation, the town of Gainesboro reflects the diversity of the local cultures, their struggles to survive and prosper, and the tensions that arise when goals clash and the state government intervenes. There are loads of power plays and backroom dealings. The Cherokees have established a successful Harrah's Gambling Casino on a large scale and are threatened by a South Carolina tribe that is trying to purchase nearby land on which to put up their own casino and compete. Both members of a prominent local family and a state senator are parties to the wheeling and dealing. At the same time, a very outspoken and somewhat far-fetched Indian activist named Jimmy Panther is meddling with the expansion of Gainesboro's privately owned cemetery after Indian remains are found where excavation for a new gateway occurs. Panther is adamantly opposed to any further assimilation of his people into the white culture and willing to risk a great deal to stop anything he identifies as encroachment.

When the wife of one of the cemetery owners dies suddenly, Panther brings demonstrators to block access to the gravesite. Soon afterwards, his murdered body is discovered sprawled on the woman's grave. Barry Clayton, the local undertaker known as Buryin' Barry, who is also a Deputy Sheriff, brings a reasoning and calming presence to the explosive situation, but every time he thinks he is getting a grip on what actually has happened, another bizarre turn of events sends him in a different direction. Eventually a Boston hitman, a missing collection of Indian artifacts, and a kidnapped Indian boy are tossed into the pot of assorted local characters (including Barry's distinctly odd uncle and his cronies), all with their own bewildering relationships.

Mark de Castrique has a fast-paced style and a talent for intricate plotting which provide a lot of fun on the way to the resolution if the reader new to the series can give up on understanding why these people are the way they are. Clearly, a lot of development has occurred in the previous five novels and if there's a complaint, it is that there is not enough of an effective back story to allow a reader to hop on board this far along in the series. Those familiar with de Castrique's earlier Buryin' Barry mysteries, on the other hand, will be delighted.

§ Diana Borse is retired from teaching English at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and savoring the chance to read as much as she always wanted to.

Reviewed by Diana Borse, December 2010

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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