Skip to main content

Book Review: Crazy Mountain Kiss by Keith McCafferty

Crazy Mountain Kiss, the 4th book in Keith McCafferty's eclectic western mystery series, starts with the protagonist, Sean Stranahan... nowhere to be found. In an interesting literary choice, the Montana private investigator, artist and fly fishing guide doesn't appear until 30 pages into the story, by which time the central mystery has been investigated by series regulars Martha Ettinger and Harold Little Feather.

While Sean is helping friend, cohort and fellow guide Sam Meslik start a winter fly fishing service in Florida, the body of a young girl is found lodged in the chimney of a Forest Service cabin in the Crazy Mountains. The mystery deepens upon his return when the body is identified as Cinderella "Cindy" Huntington, missing daughter of a local woman famous as the spokesperson for a fictional brand of trucks, and it is determined that she was 5 months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. The investigation takes an even oddER turn when Martha and Sean learn that the cabin was used as the primary venue for a "swingers" group called the Mile and a Half High Club and we are introduced to some of that group's eccentric members.

It is here that McCafferty takes some chances with the tone of the story, straying at times toward the slightly kinky, but not moving much beyond the hard PG-13 sexual verbiage typical for these kinds of novels. Perhaps more relevant to readers of the preceding novels, the story moves further from the fishing-centric plots of the first two books continuing the more general "western" themes of the third book. This is, I suppose, understandable, as, from a purely practical standpoint, the market for western-themed mysteries is surely much larger than that for fly fishing-themed mysteries. Still, there is a sense that the fishing aspects are becoming more of an add-on and less a part of the substance of the story.

While the reader has a pretty good idea early on who might have been involved in the death (murder?), the exact nature of the incident and how it played out is revealed methodically and with great skill over the course of the book. There is really no "ahah" moment or malevolent bad guy offering a soliloquy on what he did and why he did it. McCafferty also continues and expands upon his use of Native American imagery and spirituality throughout the book, and if the ultimate payoff for that comes across as a little deus ex machina, well... so be it.

I enjoyed the book, as I do everything McCafferty writes -- fiction and nonfiction -- but I will say that this is probably my least favorite of the four Sean Stranahan books I have read thus far. Parts of the story meander off into tributaries that either don't have a payoff or aren't integrated into the core story; the Florida fishing venture with Sam and Sean, for instance. Maybe it's the setup for a future story, and if so I'll be happy to eat my words, but to introduce that idea at some length and then have it ultimately dismissed in the course of a few sentences seemed like an unnecessary distraction.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Listen to the Old Man in the Pickup Truck

As economic development director for Anson County, I strongly urge you to vote FOR the Mixed Beverage* Election November 8th. But, more importantly, I encourage you to listen to the voices of the young professionals upon whom the future of the county will depend. If you look closely at the lower right-hand corner of the blue and white signs urging a FOR vote on Mixed Beverages, you will see they are paid for by YP Anson. So what is YP Anson? Is it some political action committee funded by out-of-state alcoholic beverage manufacturers and casino owners? No, it's Young Professionals Anson, an organization made up of and funded entirely by local business people and community members under the age of 40.  They are the bankers, real estate agents, lawyers, shop owners, entrepreneurs, factory managers, and tradespeople who will lead Anson County into the next decade and beyond. Most of them were born and raised here, left to get a college education, and chose to return and raise a family...

FRIDAY MATINEE: Midnight Mass (🍺🍺🍺🍺)

I held off writing this review until I had seen all seven episodes of the new Netflix limited series “Midnight Mass.” I’ve been burned in the past by shows that start out well and then devolve into silliness as they progress. While “Mass" doesn’t completely stick the landing, I think even the East German judge would give it a solid 9. Taken as a whole, I think it is as effective a piece of horror as the combined “It” movies from a few years ago, and right on par with “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”  The story revolves around a man returning to his childhood island home after a prison stay for a drunk driving accident that killed a teen girl. Coincidentally, it is the same day the island’s beloved elderly priest, Monsignor Pruitt is supposed to return from a trip to the Holy Land. Unfortunately, the priest has taken ill and is being treated on the mainland. A temporary priest arrives to take his place.  The story takes a little while to get going, and anyone who’s familiar with t...

FRIDAY MATINEE: Ghostbusters: Afterlife (🍺🍺)

I was surprised by the raucous crowd in the theater last night for a showing of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The original Ghostbusters was always a perfectly okay movie to me. I liked it, didn't love it. The tone didn't resonate with me. It wasn't quite funny enough to work as a comedy, and it definitely wasn't scary enough to work as a horror film.  I first realized that other people had different ideas about it as a cultural touchstone when the 2016 remake, featuring an all-female cast, was received with violent rhetoric usually reserved for religious extremism and SEC football. It seems that a relatively significant group of teenagers from the 1980s consider it one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, right up there with Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Our Town Cinemas was packed with those die-hards, their children, and (gasp!) grandchildren last night.  Apparently, they got what they came for since they gave the movie a standing ovation at its completio...