One Beats the Bush by Riall Nolan is a fast read, an intriguing, twisty, action-packed plot involving a small cast of well-moulded characters.

Max Donovan, a Vietnam flies back to San Francisco after he’s informed that his old friend Fat Freddie Fields has been arrested for murder. The DA seems hell-bent on a quick conviction and so is barely interested in investigating the crime. Acquiring the bail money meant messing with local drug dealers, but Donovan gets his mate out of jail, it being too much of a reminder of their past in a North Vietnamese POW camp.

Donovan’s only clue to solving the murder seems to be in New Guinea and that involves a flight, local politics and crime, smugglers, weapons, and hostile hill tribes. Donovan and his female supporter fly into a hill tribe area to find a helicopter crash site and possible clues to the murder back in San Francisco, encounter a corrupt US missionary but also find the necessary information… and by great luck and immense skill they make it out of New Guinea and back to the US just in time blow apart a smuggling operation that of course involves that corrupt DA.

It’s a fast-paced plot, the characters are likeable when they need to be and the whole story ends with a satisfying climax.  

The Seafarer’s Secret by Carol Ann Collins is a very well-written, straightforward, small-town whodunit with a twinge of romance in the background. I enjoyed reading this book as much for its setting as the carefully constructed plot – not too many clues, timed and released well. William Templeton is a widower and the police chief in Eden, North Carolina. A dead woman’s body is found with an old gold coin in her pocket – identical to a coin that was discovered on his ex-wife’s body more than a year ago. Her death then was treated as an accidental drowning but now, similar as it is to the recent death, her case is reopened. An historian, Eva, is brought into the investigation team to identify the coins which are assumed to be part of Blackbeard’s pirate treasure. Eva had visited Eden as a young child and is gradually reunited with the friends she made back then, one of whom is not as he seems and that’s where I should stop. A highly-recommended summer time read.

In the Shadow of the Kingmakers by Vihad Imani tells some of the story of the post-WW1 countries’ geo-political maneuvering for control of Persia’s/Iran’s oil resources. Set in 1924 Tehran, the story revolves around the relationships between local Iranians such as young Ali who works at a restaurant and overhears spies manipulating each other, the British Embassy nurse who teaches him English in between his stints as a gardener and occasional waiter. A British spy/military officer is overheard manipulating an American into photographing a sensitive religious site in order to generate unrest with the locals. Locals also manipulate locals under the guise of being suitably religious or loyal to the government or the Cossacks who played a role in the newly-appointed prime minister…

At its core, this is the story of Ali, a young lad who had to leave school early despite his thirst for knowledge and the better life an education could bring him. His father’s early death means Ali must work menial jobs to support his mother and siblings. Ali is loyal to his father’s honour as a Cossack soldier and to Islam. He avoids being manipulated into protests but is accused anyway and locked away. The Embassy nurse takes on ambassadors and military generals, imploring them to fight to save Ali. But their careers, money and oil are more important to them.

This was a multi-layered story with many threads. I enjoyed its complexity and sense of reality.

Drowning in the Desert by Bernard Schopen is a lively, modern-day western thriller, set sometimes in Las Vegas and sometimes in rural Nevada.

Fats Rangle, an ex-deputy sheriff, finds the two-year-old remains of a plane crash in the mountains and reports it to the authorities. On returning to his home/horse stables, he finds that his ‘cousin’ and employee has not returned from a short trip to Las Vegas. The initial investigation suggests that the cousin may have found the plane wreck before Fats and just may have found the briefcase that was said to have been in the plane, the reason so many big political and business names are keen to speak with Fats.  

Fat’s investigation takes him into the underbelly of Las Vegas where it becomes apparent his cousin had told people he had a lot of money. And that’s why everybody wants a piece of Fats.

This is a very well-crafted plot with some decidedly charming characters that are easy to like and dislike, as per the author’s whim. I enjoyed the setting, which played a significant role in the story. And I found the ending most satisfying.