Never Look Down

July 13, 2015
Easley’s well-paced third Cal Claxton mystery (after 2014’s Dead Float) finds the Oregon lawyer doing pro bono work for Portland’s disadvantaged at his office in what he calls the Caffeine Central building in the city’s Old Town. Cal also looks out for the building’s landlord, Hernando Mendoza. When Hernando’s fiancée is shot dead in Old Town late one night, high school student Kelly Spence, the tagger (graffiti artist) known as K209, witnesses the murder while spray painting an image on a nearby building and escapes only after the killer takes several shots at her shadowy figure. The killer, who leaves a bloody trail in his wake, and Cal race to find her, but Kelly avoids them both, not knowing whom she can trust. When Cal and Kelly do connect, they make a formidable and unlikely team as they try to find justice for the killer’s victims. Cal’s name is on the title page, but plucky and resourceful Kelly steals this tense adventure.

July 1, 2015
A do-gooder lawyer wants to track down the sole witness to the murder of a friend's fiancee before the friend takes matters into his own hands. Now that he's developed the reputation as a lawyer who's willing to help the common man-even if that man is still a boy-Cal Claxton feels responsible for his unofficial office hours at Portland's Caffeine Central. In his latest murder case, though, he can't just sit and wait for a presumed eyewitness to come to him because the murdered woman, Claudia, was recently betrothed to his closest friend, Hernando Mendoza. Cal wants to help more than anything, not only because he's worried what Nando might do to Claudia's ex-husband before the real killer is found, but also because he's pretty certain the witness is firmly within his wheelhouse of troubled youth. The person who saw the crime seems to be a local graffiti artist going by the moniker "K209" whose distinctive tags appear to defy gravity. Kelly Spence, meanwhile, is worried that her identity as K209 will be found out, and she knows the killers saw her hanging above them the night of the crime. The placement of her tags is a tribute to her father, who taught her climbing skills before he died in an accident several years ago. Kelly can't go to the police with what she knows because she doesn't want to get in trouble for her city artwork. Will she connect with Cal, the one person who might be on her side, or will she be too afraid to tell anyone the truth as she hides from danger? Alternating between Cal's first-person narrative and the third-person story of Kelly, Easley (Dead Float, 2014, etc.) keeps the story simple and easy to unravel while engaging readers in more long-term relationships with the characters.

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August 1, 2015

Former prosecutor Cal Claxton left Los Angeles for the wine country of Oregon. He defends people living on the streets in Portland such as 16-year-old graffiti artist Kelly Strand, who witnessed a murder while tagging a downtown building. The dead woman was the fiancee of Cal's best friend Hernando Mendez. Nando needs Cal's help to figure out who would want to kill Claudia Borrego. Meanwhile, Kelly is on the run and Cal is the only person who can help her. Shenanigans by the feds complicate Cal's case. VERDICT Lawyer Cal is an appealing knight in rusty armor, seeking justice for the most vulnerable. His latest case (after Dead Float) is complicated but holds the reader's interest. Easley exquisitely captures Portland's flavor, and his portrayal of street life is spot-on. Readers of John Hart and Kate Wilhelm will delight in trying a new author.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
Easley's Oregon lawyer Cal Claxton (Matters of Doubt, 2013) divides his time between Portland and a small Willamette Valley wine-country town, mixing private practice with pro bono work. He's in Portland this time, working to protect a teenager with a talent for climbing tall buildings and tagging them. Kelly Spence, the young tagger, is a student at an alternative high school who lives with her dead father's addict girlfriend. One night, while at work atop a building, she looks down and witnesses the murder of a woman. Unfortunately, the killer also sees her, so Kelly's life is in danger. Wanting to do the right thing while remaining anonymous, Kelly asks one of her street friends for help, but the friend also ends up dead. Cal, investigating the murder at the behest of his landlord, teams with Kelly to find the killer. Claxton makes an amiable, low-key lawyer hero, reminiscent of William G. Tapply's Brady Coyne, and Easley vividly evokes Portland's street culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)