Sat 13 Feb 2010
Reviewed by Richard Moore: WALTER SATTERTHWAIT – A Flower in the Desert.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[4] Comments
WALTER SATTERTHWAIT – A Flower in the Desert. St.Martin’s Press, hardcover; First Edition, 1992. Paperback reprint: Worldwide, November 1993. Trade paperback: University of New Mexico Press, January 2003.
I’ve always enjoyed Satterthwait’s short fiction but never tried his novels. Bill Crider introduced me to him at some Bouchercon and I picked up this paperback. When a recent trip to Santa Fe came up, I searched for this novel as it is part of Walter’s series featuring Santa Fe private eye Joshua Croft.
Why did I wait so long? Croft hits all my favorite PI hot points. He’s smart and a good investigator but not infallible. He’s a good guy but he’s got a few hangups. Tough but believable.
He’s loyal to his girl friend, who in this book is recovering from a gunshot suffered in an earlier book. No girl Friday, she is a brilliant investigator able to dig up facts on the Internet. Of course, it wasn’t called that then as Al Gore had yet to invent it. In the book, it is called searching the “data base.”
In this book, Croft is searching for the estranged ex-wife and daughter of a Hollywood action star. The woman had accused the actor of child molestation but a judge had found him not guilty. Shortly thereafter, she and their daughter disappeared. The actor, a big Latino star, comes to Croft but he refuses to take the case.
He finally agrees to work for his uncle, an important underworld figure in Santa Fe, who is willing to support her and the child even if she refuses to come out of hiding.
Did she go into hiding to protect her daughter or does her disappearance have something to do with her volunteer work for a group helping illegal immigrants? This is a very satisfying novel and a great hero, and I’ve immediately picked up two more in the series.
The Joshua Croft series —
Wall of Glass. St. Martin’s, 1987.
At Ease With the Dead. St. Martin’s, 1990.
A Flower in the Desert. St. Martin’s, 1992.
The Hanged Man. St. Martin’s, 1993.
Accustomed to the Dark. 1996.
NOTE: Croft also makes an appearance in Lair of the Lizard (St. Martin’s, 1998) a Tony Lowell novel by E. C. Ayres.
February 13th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I first ran across the Croft books a few years ago and have been a fan ever since. Satterthwait also does a good historical series set in the twenties and thirties revolving around a Pinkerton detective and an English girl who works with him.
And of note about the Croft books, they are also bright and often genuinely funny without Croft losing any of his edge as a p.i. character.
February 13th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
You’re thinking of Phil Beaumont, as the Pinkerton op, and Jane Turner, who works with him on occasion. There are three books in the series to date: Escapade (1995), Masquerade (1998), and Cavalcade (2005).
One never knows, only the author perhaps, but I have a feeling that both series have run their course.
I act like I know what I’m talking about. I’ve not read any of the books in either series. Not by willful design. They’ve just never come up in the To Be Read pile.
So far. After reading Richard’s review, they all went up several hundred notches.
— Steve
February 14th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Both great series. Trust me.
February 14th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Indeed I do, Bill. Trust you, that is. Any recommendation from you is like money in the bank. Both series are now way up on my TBR list.
The truth is, though, I don’t really have a To Be Read pile. I have a To Be Read storage area.
All seriousness aside, the next time a book in either series comes to surface, it comes home with me, and you will read about it here.