The Big Thaw - Donald Harstad [0]
NOVELS OF DONALD HARSTAD
THE BIG THAW
“A TRULY GREAT STORYTELLER … He sets up the story beautifully, with intense suspense, an intriguing investigation that has all the authentic trappings, and a believable cast of police personnel. HE GETS BETTER AND BETTER WITH EACH BOOK.”
—Library Journal
“It’s FASCINATING to follow Harstad’s hero-narrator, Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman of Nation County, Iowa, through a crime scene. Houseman proceeds with absolute confidence, making the slightest depression in the carpeting intriguing, treating the reader to insights gleaned from physical evidence that only a firsthand authority can render…. HARSTAD IS ONE OF THE MOST RELIABLE AND RIVETING POLICE-PROCEDURAL WRITERS IN THE BUSINESS.”
—Booklist
“Harstad’s strength is in the wry and dry details of a cop’s life, and in his unbending compassion for deceptively plain people who cast long shadows in the subzero snow.”
—Kirkus Reviews
KNOWN DEAD
“Instantly propels him into the top ranks of mystery writers.”
—Booklist
“A complicated little conundrum of a plot that keeps Houseman, the Feds, and the reader guessing all the way through … An author who knows his territory.”
—The New York Times
“Hard-core procedural fans will find Carl’s second case authentically … realistic.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Harstad … advances the scary (and perversely entertaining) notion that people are just as cuckoo in the heartland as they are in the wicked city.”
—The New York Times Book Review
ELEVEN DAYS
“A hell of a first novel.”
—Michael Connelly
“[Harstad’s] dry, even droll account of these macabre crimes makes them all the more terrible.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“With one startling twist after another, this grisly but cunningly sophisticated story is truly frightening.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle
“Downright explosive! The descriptions of the police work rival Wambaugh’s best.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The very best procedural novels are those that follow police personnel through the solving of a crime from its discovery to evidence-gathering to the apprehension of the guilty…. As a former Deputy Sheriff from Iowa, Harstad has the procedure down…. Deputy Carl Houseman is the epitome of a police officer, and his humanity, intelligence, and ability place him at personal risk as the case races to a heart-stopping climax.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
ALSO BY DONALD HARSTAD
Eleven Days
Known Dead
To Rae and Nick Anderson
Thank you for your encouragement, support, and confidence that good things were going to happen. Most of all, thank you for prying open some doors.
Acknowledgments
To Dr. Peter Stevens, I wish to express my great appreciation for his great knowledge of pathology, his enthusiastic advice, and his support of my efforts. I would like to express my gratitude to the Officers, Dispatchers, and Staff of the Clayton County Sheriff’s Department, for their continued cooperation and assistance, and for the work they do every day and every night. I would like to thank my friends “on the boat,” who explained some complex things to me. I thank my wife, Mary, without whose support and encouragement I would not be able to write; and my daughter, Erica, who provides honest and constructive criticism in the early stages of each book.
One
Monday, January 12, 1998, 2309
About a minute after I got settled in bed, I heard a faint scratching sound. It took me a second to realize that I’d left my police walkie-talkie on. It was sitting in its charger, about fifteen feet from the bed. I thought about getting up and turning it off, but there were several reasons I didn’t. First, Sue was already asleep beside me, and I didn’t want to wake her by moving around some more. Second, the intermittent transmissions by the bored dispatcher were kind of soothing, in a distant way. I could hear her talk, but the volume was set so low, I couldn’t make out the words. Perfect. Third, I was just too damned tired to get up.
I was getting to that presleep stage, when the pitch of the dispatcher’s voice began to