Buffalo Bill's Defunct

July 21, 2008
This middling first of a new series from Simonson (Larkspur
) features a familiar mystery-solving duo of police professional and amateur sleuth: sheriff’s deputy Rob Neill, who’s inherited his grandmother’s house in the town of Klalo, Wash., and his new next-door neighbor, Meg McLean, freshly arrived from Southern California to head up the town’s library system. When a dead body is found buried in Meg’s garage, their friendship moves from budding romance to investigative partners, as Rob deputizes Meg so he can take advantage of her research skills. A strong narrative line focused on the looting of Native American artifacts isn’t enough, alas, to carry an otherwise bland and awkwardly plotted story. The novel is set in one of the country’s most visually stunning areas, yet almost no attention is given to the landscape. The book’s title, from an e.e. cummings poem, is the book’s most original aspect.