Crime Fiction and Love: The Caitlin Strong Series from Jon Land (and More) [July release]

Crime fiction + Love: It shouldn't be an unexpected pairing. In some cases the masculine or police environment might call for using the term "loyalty" instead, but thumbing through favorite modern mysteries, often a powerful affection between characters acts to tighten the grip of a desperate choice for the investigator.

Look at some of the very popular series in print today: Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series, where Gamache puts himself at risk time and again for the sake of the people on his team, and they respond by maturing and developing deeper courage. Gamache's love for his wife is also front and center in the series, as well as the complicated relationship he has with his eventual son-in-law.

Julia Spencer-Fleming's police procedurals, set in upstate New York, circle around how alcohol and drug abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder affect Claire and Russ as they struggle to prevent and solve murders; Lee Child's Jack Reacher engages in local conflicts for the sake of individuals he's drawn to (and the heartbreak of the series lies in how often he loses contact with those people by the end of an investigation); Tim Hallinan's remarkable Bangkok books, the Poke Rafferty mysteries, focus on what Poke will do to protect and preserve his family and friends; and Julia Keller's West Virginia crime fiction confronting the scourge of opioid addiction does it "up close and personal" through family dynamics.

Jon Land writes several series, and my favorite, hands down, is his Caitlin Strong series. There's a whiff of paranormal to it, because the outrageously loyal and physically strong Guillermo Paz, a unique sidekick to investigators Caitlin Strong and Cort Wesley Masters, often feels driven by a sixth sense that lets him know when "his Texas Ranger," Caitlin, needs his protection. And Cort Wesley sorts through his quandaries with a rootbeer-drinking ghost. Beyond that, however, the books engage the classic motivations for Big Crime (everything in Texas is big, right?) and in a unique historical strand, they retell escapades from the previous generations of Caitlin's family who've also been Texas Rangers.

STRONG FROM THE HEART sends Caitlin hunting the roots of a Big Pharma cabal that's accidentally poisoned an entire Texas town. She needs to get to the criminals as fast as possible, because it's becoming clear that they are the same ones responsible for Cort Wesley's son -- a boy she has mothered for a decade -- making a nearly fatal experiment with snorting an opioid. Cort Wesley, not being an official law enforcement officer, is likely to face serious charges himself if he takes vigilante action against the cabal or its Texas-based leader. And just incidentally, the criminals here are psychopathic enough to re-target Caitlin's family in order to hurt her more.

Deepening the intensity of Caitlin Strong's pursuit is her even more personal stake this time: She's been taking Vicodin to deal with massive cranial trauma she received (see Strong as Steel), and both the targeted youth and her federal-level colleague "Jones" have hinted that she may herself have become an addict.

This book's title fits with another ongoing conflict of love and values in the book: Caitlin's struggle to define her position in terms of a recently discovered half-sister, Nola, who's far more violent (without regrets) than Caitlin herself:

"Let me handle this, Cort Wesley," Caitlin said, when she saw Nola Delgado drinking a Corona in one of the parking lot's few shady spots.

"I was thinking we double-team her."

"Better I do this alone."

"Why?"

"Because we share the same blood."

"But not the same heart, Ranger. Yours is as big and strong as your name. Hers most likely resembles a spoiled peach pit."

Later in the same scene, as Nola tries to goad Caitlin:
Caitlin didn't bristle at being addressed that way today. Maybe she was getting used to the truth. Maybe that was part of what Cort Wesley was getting at, being strong from the heart.
Reading Land's Caitlin Strong series requires relaxing with his very short chapters, thriller style, and having a few loose ends left behind (if Caitlin gets rid of her Vicodin, how's she going to handle the cranial pain, especially after she re-injures her head in another explosion?). But it's prime escape fiction, follows enough of the genre conventions to be satisfying, and -- yes, it's packed with how people act when motivated by love and loyalty.

No need to read the others in the series first -- they are not very dependent on sequence, so they make ideal titles to keep on the shelf for entertaining re-reading.

At the moment, the publication date for STRONG FROM THE HEART is July 28, from Forge Books. We don't often post this far in advance about a book, but this is an especially good year to pre-order, whether from a local bookstore or online.

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

CODA: MORE ABOUT LOVE

You know how love makes your heart grow stronger, but also more vulnerable? Right, you've got it. Well, here's a personal story: A few years ago, Jon Land placed "Kingdom Books" into one of his other series, the one he co-writes with Jessica Fletcher under the "Murder, She Wrote" brand. He did it as a surprise gift to my husband Dave and me. And when the review copy came in the mail, we had just sold the books that made up the retail part of our "collector's resource" business here. Yes, all of them. Our hearts were broken. And I couldn't figure out how to tell Jon what had happened.

Dave and I were very fortunate to "find each other" when we were fifty, and to enjoy savoring books together. One reason we let go of the Kingdom Books retail end was, Dave had a cancer diagnosis and we knew the rest of our time was limited, as his could not be treated. A year after that, I had one also (mine was treatable, though). And in April 2019, when Strong as Steel was released, Dave died.

Some of you already know the fierce loss and storms of change that follow the long illness and then death of a spouse. (If you haven't experienced it, I'm glad for you -- but you also may not be able to guess how it takes your world off balance.) I'm back in the saddle, reviewing crime fiction/mystery books, usually at or before their release dates. I'm sorry that I wasn't "there for Jon" during that interlude. But ... as someone who positions love and loyalty so centrally in his books, I bet he understands.