New Texas Ranger Mystery Series from J M Gulvin, THE LONG COUNT

US cover

The name J M Gulvin won't be familiar even to readers of this British/American author's long series of previous books, because it's a new pen name -- earlier titles came out from "Jeff Gulvin" and the pseudonym "Adam Armstrong."

Hard to say whether this newest nom de plume is intended to sound like Texas. In fact, the toughest part about THE LONG COUNT, a debut in a Texas Ranger series, is that almost nothing in the book "sounds like" the Lone Star State. And for a region with such distinctive language, that's quite a drawback in a novel set there.

On the other hand, there's plenty of Southern in the book, where Ranger John Quarrie (careful, don't confuse this with Quarry, a creation of Max Allan Collins) is struggling to keep up with the work load during student protests during the Vietnam War. Quarrie's tangled connection with a recently returned Nam veteran, Isaac Bowen, takes him dashing along back roads and sometimes all the way past the Texas border to Louisiana. What's the story behind Isaac's father's death -- and is it suicide (which John Quarrie doubts) or murder? Where is Isaac's missing brother Ishmael? Why do the members of this devastated family have ties to a high-security asylum for the criminally insane?

It took me a while to get into THE LONG COUNT because of the lack of Texas feel to it. But I finally found Quarrie -- or John Q, as he is also known -- such an interesting detective that I fell into the story after all. Quarrie's friendships and unusual extended family, including his young son, are especially intriguing. So is the rich language with which Gulvin piles details into the scenes:

Quarrie approached the house along the overgrown footpath with a flashlight the chief had retrieved from the truck. The stoop was cut from rough-looking wood and two of the steps were rotten, the edges turned to mush. He picked up a scraping of mud that seemed to have been deposited at an odd angle. Coasting the beam from the flashlight across the grass he saw where it was flattened in places and that was not due to the rain. Moving away from the stoop he looked more deeply and shone the torch on the turned earth under the window.

You can see from that sample that Gulvin's Britishisms haven't been fully pruned out. It makes for some odd descriptions, with a bit of a strange rhythm to the prose. But the plot twists are smart and dark, and the book is still a good read.

Besides, I love getting in on the first book of a series -- it's exciting to wonder how the author will grow with the characters in the titles yet to come!

THE LONG COUNT -- the title refers in one sense to going underwater and holding your breath -- is brought to American readers by Faber and Faber, and comes recommended by the magnificent Ann Cleeves. Keep your expectations modest, and enjoy the ride.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.