Deadly Kin
Publishers Weekly
It is not that teacher-outdoorsman Will Buchanan goes looking for murders to solve, although he does so once again in this well-crafted, often gripping entry in Eslick's White Mountains series (Tracked in the Whites; Snowkill). Rather, between his romantic entanglement with the local sheriff and the troubled family background of one of his students, Buchanan has little choice-especially when he finds himself accused by that student of rape, thrown in the county jail and put on leave from the prep school where he works. What else is a man to do but rescue the student from the psychosis of her dysfunctional family, win back the woman he loves and restore his own and his school's good names? Buchanan is a man's man: at home in New Hampshire's rugged wilderness, partial to fine whisky, emotionally restrained, a straight talker. Buchanan even fights bare-knuckle with a former navy SEAL. Little surprise, then, when along comes a character named Jacob Barnes, Eslick's homage to Hemingway. If occasional lapses into melodrama hardly evoke that literary lion, Eslick may surpass the master in the strongly individualized portrayals of the story's female characters. In the meantime, the autumnal colors of the White Mountains beckon. Though the woods prove dark, deep and deadly, readers should enjoy the excitement of joining Will Buchanan on the trail. Agent, Alison Picard. (Sept. 15) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In this sequel to Tracked in the Whites, teacher/sleuth Will Buchanan takes his currently estranged girlfriend's niece, 17-year-old Erin, to a hut in New Hampshire's White Mountains to meet her brother, who is hiking the Appalachian Trail. Brother and sister exchange passionate greetings and more, but only after finding the brother's body the next morning does Will realize that the pair were step-siblings from a dysfunctional family. Erin subsequently turns on Buchanan for some reason, making passes, then accusing him of rape. More bizarre behavior from the family punctuates Buchanan's attempts to establish his own innocence and find the murderer. Down-to-earth prose, beautiful New Hampshire surroundings, and a deceptively simple plot make this a good choice for most collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Jeremiah Healy, Shamus Award winner and author of The only Good Lawyer and Spiral
"In Deadly Kin, Tom Eslick has created that rare combination of crossword puzzle and contemporary novel."
John Lutz, Edgar and Shamus Award winner and author of The Night Watcher
"Forget about beach books; this is a camping book, and a dandy. Eslick uses his knowledge and obvious love of the outdoors to usher us into a complex and riveting mystery. With deft sure-footedness, the author leads us along trails real and figurative through a wilderness that gets deeper and darker the farther in we go. With Eslick as our guide, we're in good hands."
William G. Tapply, author of Shadow of Death
"Deadly Kin is at once a taut suspense story and a guidebook to the New England wilderness. Tom Eslick has staked out New Hampshire's White Mountains for his own mean streets, and Will Buchanan, his savvy protagonist, is my kind of guy. A terrific novel."
Barbara D'Amato, author of the novel White Male Infant and winner of the first Mary Higgens Clark Award
"Deadly Kin has it all-a splendid and perilous setting in the White Mountains, a sympathetic protagonist, and evil emerging from buried family secrets."