Mark Lindquist is a prosecuting attorney for Washington State's Pierce County, the epicenter for methamphetamine production on the west coast. Much of the county used to be fairly rural, where homes in the forests near Mount Rainier were cute or at least rustic; now, they just look suspicious--people have learned that a house trailer or carport with a blue tarp means trouble. Lindquist specializes in meth prosecutions and knows his way around this sad, violent world. The King of Methlehem is a gritty, often humorous thriller; nonetheless, it makes plain the harsh toll meth takes on people's lives, both addicts and non-addicts.The novel opens with Detective Wyatt James, "who believes a good old-fashioned dialogue is the surest way to solve anything, though sometimes the specter of coercion is necessary to keep the conversation lively," interviewing a tweeker, a meth addict. This is rough going, since "it takes eight to ten weeks of cold turkey before tweekers can communicate. Even then, though, a dialogue with a tweeker is roughly akin to one with a snotty ten-year-old." James had thought his assignment to the meth lab team would be a good break from homicides, but instead it's been a "grim tour through doom and decay."
James is looking for the top meth cook in Pierce Country, a man with many aliases, who is currently calling himself Howard Schultz. Schultz is proud of his reputation as the meth king. "To the outside eye, Howard looks depleted and decrepit . . . but inside he feels dynamic and destined for greatness." The great man moves in with a former girlfriend named Brandy and her seductive 12-year-old daughter, Porsche. Schultz delights in taking Porsche with him on various scam outings, like installing a fake ATM in a 7-11 parking lot. They sit in the car, watching people lose their cards in the machine, laughing and ingesting hard lemonade, Mountain Dew and Vicodins. The All-American enterprising family.
Detective James is a committed cop, completely focused on his job, with few friends: "At an open-house party a neighbor told Wyatt that he was the only resident with a normal job and Wyatt explained that detective work is not a normal job, that it consumes and changes people in much the same way he imagined artistic pursuits can, sometimes in good ways, sometimes not. He was surprised to hear himself vocalize this and vowed not to get drunk with civilians again." One of his friends is Mike Lawson, the team chief for the drug trial unit. They trade best movie lines, argue over due process and try to make the world a better place. His girlfriend Suki has two jobs, barista and stripper. He's right: not exactly a civilian.
The King of Methlehem, with its dark humor and wild characters, takes us on a rowdy and pleasurable ride, even with the grim reality of methamphetamine as its engine.--Marilyn Dahl