Death on the High Lonesome

August 10, 2015
In Hayes’s fine sequel to his 2014 debut, Death at the Black Bull, Sheriff Virgil Dalton and the members of his small department in Hayward (a town and county in an unnamed Southwest state) cover a large area and large problems with grit, humor, and sense. First, Deputy Jimmy Tillman is seriously injured when a woman’s body falls from an interstate overpass onto the windshield of the car he’s driving on the road below. The woman, who was badly dehydrated, had been fatally struck by a truck moments before. Next, elderly Velma Thompson calls to report that her husband, Charlie, has disappeared. When Rosita Brand, Virgil’s office manager, goes to the Thompsons’ ranch, she finds Velma dead and Charlie still missing. The return of the Thompsons’ three adult children, all of whom went elsewhere to escape the ranching life, adds some confusing pieces to the puzzle. Virgil’s personal relationships with his staff and the grown daughter he didn’t know he had until recently add depth and humanity to this part-Apache lawman.