Butcher Pen Road: a Novel

May 24, 2021
The discovery of a body floating in a creek propels Lackey’s subpar third mystery featuring Sgt. Bill Maytubby of Oklahoma’s Chickasaw Lighthorse Police and Johnston County Deputy Hannah Bond (after 2019’s Greasy Bend). At the crime scene, Maytubby and Bond are baffled by the fishing outfit worn by the victim, which is several sizes too big, and by gear unsuited for catching the type of fish in the creek. The victim is eventually identified as Douglas Verner, who was fatally hit with a piece of rebar well before he landed in the creek. Verner was cheating on his wife, but she’s not the only suspect in the murder case. The boy who found the corpse and his mother are threatened one night, perhaps by those involved in the killing. Maytubby and Bond must put the evidentiary puzzle pieces together while around them different crime units fight for jurisdiction. The humorous banter between the pair distracts, and the often confusing narrative can be hard to follow. Series fans will hope for a return to form next time. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Assoc.

Starred review from June 1, 2021
A body found dead in a creek marks the beginning of a complex case for Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Sgt. Bill Maytubby. Maytubby is far from your average cop. Educated in the classics at St. John's College in Santa Fe, where he also learned to fly planes, he's a health food-chomping advocate for tribal concerns. His favorite partner in detection is Johnston County Deputy Hannah Bond, an unusual woman herself. The dead man, who's wearing expensive fly-fishing gear that doesn't fit him, is discovered far from a public access area in a little creek on the property of Deborah Laber and her son, Jason, who's deaf and may have been a witness to the crime. Maytubby, an excellent tracker, finds large, smooth footprints at the scene and two marks of a wheeled cart ending near an old car with no belts or battery. Meanwhile, after wrecking her missing husband's truck, an intoxicated Tula Verner complains about her husband's affair to Maytubby and Hannah, and a man on disability hefts big blocks of stone to build a replica of Roman Jerusalem while trying to steal his neighbor's land. The state police push Maytubby and Hannah aside to concentrate on Tula when the dead man is identified as her husband, but the independent pair, undeterred, follow a trail leading to Texas and probable Medicare fraud. Deborah and Jason become targets and hide at Hannah's house while she and Maytubby pursue an oddly incompetent but deadly gang of criminals. An impeccably written tale laced with humor and featuring unorthodox, believable detectives.

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July 30, 2021

The third in the Bill Maytubby and Hannah Bond series (following Greasy Bend) begins when a body is found on Chickasaw Nation land. Lighthorse policeman Bill Maytubby quickly determines that he does not have jurisdiction, and the case is turned over to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. While Maytubby's official involvement has ended, his curiosity and concern for the boy who found the body lead him to enlist the help of Deputy Sheriff Hannah Bond and continue his investigation. As the case moves forward, so does Maytubby's relationship with his fianc�e, Jill Milton, providing a welcome distraction from the murder. As Maytubby moves in, the killers get desperate and are willing to kill again to prevent discovery. Lackey's mystery offers an alternative glimpse of life and police work than that of the big-city narrative so common in crime fiction, though the high-context writing can make the plot difficult to follow at times. VERDICT A quick-read police procedural that is aided by knowledge and context of the setting while highlighting the challenges of law enforcement in rural Oklahoma. For fans of Kent Anderson, Danny Gardner, and Lisa Sandlin.--George Lichman, Rocky River, OH

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