Review: Butch Dixon's story, a nice short read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2014
A review copy was provided for an honest review. The Old Blue Line is a novella prequel to Jance's Joanna Brady series. It takes readers full circle to Butch Dixon's life previously to meeting the familiar Sheriff of Conchise County, Joanna Brady. This is, however, not about her character, but about Dixon--her husband. If you enjoy Jance's writing as much as I do and are looking for a short, light, mystery read set from Butch's perspective than you won't be disappointed. Even new readers will be able to grab this and follow along because it works well as a standalone.Losing everything to a deceptive and cheating ex-wife should have destroyed Butch, and it almost nearly did. If it weren't for his grandmother he'd still be wallowing in misery. She took him in, gave him a home, and later, left him her restaurant called the Roundhouse to run. All of this is threatened one afternoon when--years later--he's approached and interrogated for the murder of his former wife. It seems that even after her death she has managed to damn him again by making Dixon a prime suspect in her case. It's now left up to Butch to figure out whose setting him up before he ends up losing his future to the same woman who ruined his past.Butch has an interesting history that's comprised of a lot of hurt. When we meet him he's already moved on from his past, but now he's dropped in the middle of a homicide where he's the #1 suspect. It brings up a lot of long buried feelings and allows a deeper side of his character to be revealed. The road to proving his innocence is winding, and takes a few turns you wouldn't expect. I enjoyed the detours and eccentric side characters he encounters that aid him on his quest of discovering why he's the accused, and whose really responsible for the mess. I found Butch's backstory not overwhelmingly exciting but nevertheless compelling. It's fun to view things from his perspective and dig around in his past, and see more dimension from him than you'd not otherwise get from Joanna's POV.Overall The Old Blue Line treats readers to a short Dixon-centric story that is a nice addition to Jance's long-running series.There is something really special about how Jance writes, and it keeps you coming back for more. So long as you go into this one for Dixon and not Joanna--she only makes a brief cameo towards the end--than you won't be let down.