Review: Tight Noir Suspense Tale
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 8, 2011
Tractor Girl by James Reasoner is a lot like the old Gold Medal suspense novels I grew up on as a kid.  They always featured tough as nails guys (good and bad) and femme fatales that were lethally lovely.  This little novel weighs in with the same frenetic action and twists and turns in the plot as those books, and would have been published as a Gold Medal Original back in the day.The action starts on page one and doesn't let up.  Along the way, though, Reasoner games the readers often, adding fast-paced switches and reveals that will have you mesmerized.  Things definitely aren't as they seems on the small little Texas ranch.Although the plot stems from somewhere outside the farm, the main character Nick Paulson is dumped on the family land and on death's door.  And it's there, where Nick is supposed to be recovering, that he faces his greatest danger and greatest temptation.It's difficult to talk much about the plot without giving away the various cliffhangers and reverses.  I settled in with this one to while away a few minutes at lunch, then felt irritated when I had to get back to work.  Thankfully I was able to finish it that night.The characters are just solid enough to hang the plot on, and the complications pop up and change the game before you can get settled into any of them.  Even though you think you've got each curveball figured out, Reasoner still succeeds in throwing out one more to leave you gasping at the finish line.