Publisher's Weekly Review
In Sallis's beautifully written second book to feature Turner, an ex-cop and ex-con (after 2004's Cypress Grove), Turner is working as a deputy sheriff in Cripple Creek, Tenn., a small town where crime is minor and strictly local. Then, late one night, Sheriff Don Lee arrests drunk driver Judd Kurtz with $200,000 in a nylon gym bag hidden in the trunk of his car. Kurtz breaks out of the town jail, seriously wounding two officers in the process. Turner's investigation leads him to an organized crime connection in nearby Memphis that enmeshes him in a web of escalating violence. Sallis's working method is to simply let the cameras roll, depicting the lives of Turner, his banjo-picking girlfriend, his eccentric co-workers and Cripple Creek itself, as everyone goes about their business. Small moments are recorded as faithfully as large, and stories from earlier days mix with the ongoing crimes and misdemeanors of the present. A structural sleight of hand toward the end may at first confuse but is pretty amazing once the reader catches on. Author tour. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Dodging trouble, ex-cop, ex-con J. Turner has run to one of those small towns that time forgot (Cypress Groves, 2003), but trouble finds him, since, as Turner himself likes to say, "No one is exempt." When Sheriff Don Lee and Deputy Turner check out the trunk of a spaced-out speeder, they find a stolen $200,000. Soon enough, the rightful owners--hard cases from Memphis with little interest in finesse--come after it. Gunned down, Sheriff Lee hovers near death, and Turner, whose unwritten code is set in stone, sees no choice but retaliation. In Memphis, he calls in favors, generates the requisite intelligence, takes out a couple of bad guys and heads home, confident that the deadly game of vendetta he's started will continue till most of the participants have checked out. He's right, but he's not entirely prepared for retaliation from his antagonists, people schooled in an old and bloody tradition. They understand that lasting hurt is best derived from collateral damage, and that Turner, formidable though he is, has more vulnerable loved ones. As usual with Sallis, you don't get a lot of plot. What you get instead are characters to engage the mind and heart and some of the most flavorful writing crime fiction has to offer ("cordovan shoes so highly polished it looked like he was walking on two violins"). Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Sallis is really on a roll. Last October saw the arrival of his dynamite noir novella Drive, and now we have the superb second entry in his new Turner series. As this tale opens, Turner, ex-cop, ex-con, and ex-psychotherapist, remains on the lam in rural Cypress Grove, Tennessee, escaping the demons of past lives in Memphis, but he is starting to mend. There's a developing relationship with Val Bjorn, teacher and country musician; there's the appearance of his daughter from Seattle; and there's the fact that he has come out of hibernation to accept the job as deputy sheriff of Cypress Grove. Then his boss, the kindly sheriff, is assaulted by a gang of mobbed-up toughs in the act of breaking one of their own out of the small-town jail. Turner pursues the thugs to Memphis, confronting his past and giving vent to his suppressed blood lust. Every action prompts a reaction, however, and soon the thugs return to Cypress Grove looking for some blood of their own. Sallis tells the violent tale quietly, effectively using jump cuts, flashbacks, and flashforwards to generate both suspense and, simultaneously, a sense of inevitability. The stunning finale makes clear that Turner has a lot more healing to do. Sallis' Lew Griffin series remains a cult favorite among devoted hard-boiled fans, but don't be surprised if the Turner novels eventually claim pride of place in the author's oeuvre. --Bill Ott Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Starred Review. This sequel to Cypress Grove updates Turners life as a deputy sheriff in a rural county south of Memphis and takes another introspective look into the past of this Vietnam veteran, former cop, ex-con, and retired psychiatrist. When a speeding citation escalates into an arrest, a jailbreak, and an attack on the sheriffs staff, Turner follows the fugitive to Memphis, where he offends more than one syndicate boss in his quest for information. Deciding against continuing the pursuit, Turner returns to his job and waits for the fugitive to come to him. Daily life--an extended visit from his long-estranged daughter, the death of a young hippie living in the woods near his home, the end of a friendship that might have become something more--continues as Turner bides his time, reminiscing about the past and dealing with the reality of today. The climax is, in fact, an anticlimax, for Turners story and not the pursuit of a fugitive is the crux of this novel. Poet and master storyteller Sallis has a wonderful command of the English language, which makes his every book an experience to savor. Highly recommended.--Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
