Review: "No One Is Innocent In This Novel"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2013
This is a complex novel that really absorbed me until the end.  The story takes place in and about Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.  A rustic, rugged landscape of timber and mines.  Like the land, the characters in this story are also rugged -- each and every one of them having ultimate goals and remorse.  The main character, Matt Worthson, sits at Albi's Bar and Grill.  Trying to overcome his taste for hard liquor, he orders coffee.  He's carrying a load of guilt, and his recent sharing experience with 'Father' Arlen, a local minister serving the police department when the need arises, seems to somewhat take the load off his back.  Matt is a lieutenant for the Bitterroot County Sheriff's Department.  He's on duty and as he steps into his old truck, Sheriff Merrill radios him to report to a crime scene at the Coeur D'Alene Resort -- where a dismembered body has been found in the restroom. Scattered over three stalls of the men's room was the mutilated body of 'Father' Arlen Bowman. There are many characters in this novel, including Kev Macht, a young man who has walked away from the Aryan Nations at nearby Hayden Lake.  He also has a load of loathing he packs around with him, but is he really capable of killing Arlen? As in many small communities, there are political games played not only between the Resort owners and town officials, but also within the sheriff's department.  Regardless, even as Matt's sheriff thinks he is incapable of handling the investigation of this murder, he does slowly make progress.  But along his path is much chaos and finger pointing.  This novel is also a psychological thriller.  At times it appears as a jigsaw puzzle, with pieces missing.  But, I couldn't put this story down until I found those missing pieces.  Highly recommend this extraordinary, in depth, thriller.