Death at the Black Bull

August 11, 2014
Hayes’s strong debut introduces a complex and likable lawman, Virgil Dalton, the sheriff of Hayward, Ariz., a small cattle town with some big-time crime. Soon after truck driver Buddy Hinton goes missing, last seen having a few beers with automotive go-to guy Wade Travis and others at the Black Bull bar, Buddy’s body turns up in a stock tank. An employee of Hayward Ranch and Trucking, Buddy worked for the trucking operation run by Caleb Hayward, son of politically ambitious Micah and grandson of autocratic Audrey, who is also mother of Virgil’s late wife, Rusty. Virgil concludes that more deaths will follow Buddy’s murder, and they do. Virgil finds himself scrambling to protect possible witnesses as he tries to figure out why Buddy was killed and what role the Hayward family might have played. The mostly nuanced supporting cast may include a stereotype or two, but readers will want to see a lot more of Virgil and friends.

September 1, 2014

Virgil Dalton has been sheriff in Hayward, AZ, just like his father before him, for 12 years. It's a quiet place, populated mostly by tumbleweeds and cattle. When Buddy Hinton goes missing after drinking at the local bar, the Black Bull, his friends suspect he fled to Mexico to find a girlfriend. But when Buddy turns up dead in one of his stock tanks, Virgil and deputy Jimmy need to figure out who wanted Buddy dead and why. The duo work well together; Virgil attends to the details and Jimmy sees the big picture. VERDICT Virgil Dalton takes no prisoners in Hayes's satisfying debut novel, and fans of Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire will cheer the sheriff's desire to protect his town. With its strong sense of place, this series launch will also keep fans of Western mysteries enthralled.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
The hero is a small-town Arizona sheriff who wears a Stetson and drives a Jeep, but underneath the dusty southwestern setting lurks a forties noir plot, with wisecracking sidekicks, treacherous dames, and decadent heirs and heiresses. Plus a lead who puts up with the creeps until the day he decides not to. Sheriff Dalton's inquiry into the disappearance of a local ends quickly, when he finds the missing man dead in a stock tank. Then a girl and her brother are murdered, execution-style. Dalton is aware of a tenuous connection to the dead man, and the investigation begins. It leads, maybe predictably, to the big house outside town and the Scotch-at-noon folks who live there. Dalton shares cluesa pecan bag, an ice-cream truckbut keeps their meaning close until the surprising final pages. Author Hayes is a skillful storyteller and a deft hand at witty dialoguecatch the wise old Indian's bit about the sacred eagle feather.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)