In the outstanding A Lonesome Place for Dying, Nolan Chase delivers a thoughtful, action-packed police procedural that tracks a new police chief learning to be a leader in a town succumbing to a growing drug trade.
Former Marine Ethan Brand was a police deputy in Blaine, Wash., for 15 years until he's appointed chief when popular longtime chief Frank Keogh retires. The promotion sets Ethan apart from his deputies, several of whom also wanted the job. Ethan didn't expect the death threats he receives, or the pushback from the town's officials. On his first day as chief, even before his swearing-in ceremony, Ethan and his deputies get called to investigate a woman's murder outside of town. A second murder follows the disappearance of a witness as Ethan transitions from being an employee to the boss, trying to establish his new authority--"In charge, but not taking charge. Not yet." Chase also shows the changes in Blaine, where failing industries have brought in a drug trade from Canada, which borders the town.
Chase displays a strong sense of plotting and character development. Ethan struggles with his personal ennui. His wife and his two young sons have moved to Boston. He has ended his relationship with a married woman with whom he was deeply in love. He feels adrift, alone, "something deeper than loneliness, an ache, a sense of life being unsettled, of playing out in a way it shouldn't have." --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer