Dead Float: (2 Cal Claxton Oregon Mysteries)

It's hook, line, and murder. Cal Claxton-a former LA prosecutor now practicing law in Oregon's wine country and who works to fish-has to pinch himself when his best friend Philip Lone Deer asks him to assist guiding a group of executives from a high tech firm in Portland. For a fly fisherman, it doesn't get any better than the salmon fly hatch on the Deschutes River, Oregon's legendary trout fishing venue. The execs, however, aren't coming just to fish. They're engaging in a conflict-resolution exercise where the future of the firm is to be determined. And Cal learns, too late, that the company's CEO is bringing his wife, the woman with whom Cal had a fling after their last Lone Deer-guided fishing trip. Cal soon broke it off, but.... The trip through the remote Deschutes Canyon turns ugly when CEO Hal is murdered during the first night's camp. Everyone in the party is a suspect, especially Cal. And his knife and vest have disappeared. Does the fact that the company's value is about to explode play into the crime? What about the freight line running along the river? Could a hired killer have come and gone from the scene of the crime by hopping trains? As two local cops come down heavily on Cal, can he come up with a water-tight solution as he did in the tricky Portland case Matters of Doubt?

About the Author :
Award-winning author Warren C. Easley lives in Oregon where he writes fiction and tutors GED students. Easley is the author of the Cal Claxton Oregon Mysteries. For more, visit WarrenEasley.com.

Review :
Settle down for an evening's company with Cal Claxton. But first, take a glass of pinot noir from Oregon's Willamette Valley, where he has his law office, and a seat on a bench overlooking the Deschutes River, where he waves a fly rod for rainbow trout between cases. Failing that, any wine, any chair, anywhere. Dead Float starts with a man's throat cut ear to ear and Claxton's fishing knife found nearby, and gathers momentum like the midnight freight trains nearby. As a Deschutes aficionado myself, I'll never listen to those lonesome whistles again without thinking of this story, and thanking the stars it was only fiction. Cal Claxton, the lead in this densely packed crime story, is the very model of the modern hard-boiled hero. He used to be a prosecuting attorney in Los Angeles, but his wife’s suicide drove him to a life of puttering about his Oregon farmhouse. When he needs bucks, he takes somebody to court. Or he helps out pal Philip Lone Deer, who runs a fishing-guide business. As Dead Float begins, Claxton and Philip are hosting the managers of a high-tech firm. The execs have hired a consultant, who gathers the team into an encounter group: worker bees get to tell the boss what they really think of him. Any surprise somebody gets murdered? Of interest is that, along with the usual motivations for murder—money, sex, revenge—the author suggests others. Humiliation? Hurt feelings? Dim cops try to nail Cal for the crime, so he must catch the killer himself, and, in true old-school style, identities unspool as the plot twists abound. Good writing and a fine, wild ending. A former lawyer finds that leading a fishing expedition isn’t quite the respite he was expecting when a customer is murdered on the trip. Ever since he left his high-pressure job as an LA prosecutor, Cal Claxton has been looking for a little peace and quiet. Walks with his loyal dog, Archie, and trout fishing on Oregon’s Deschutes River now fill his time. Cal expects an equally relaxed few days when he agrees to lead a fishing trip for his friend Philip Lone Deer. Almost immediately, however, the drama begins when Cal realizes the trip is for Hal Bruckner, head of up-and-coming NanoTech. Not only do Hal’s companions have poorly hidden disagreements about the Diamond Wire Project the company is planning, but Hal’s wife, Alexis, has a personal (very personal) history with Cal. Luckily, Hal had the foresight to hire Daina Zakaris, a consultant with Accelerated Management Development, to help with the professional transition. Daina gets some of the animosity out in the open and begins to develop communication between the four members of NanoTech’s management team. But she doesn't seem to have been so successful at having the team confront conflict: They awaken to find Hal’s been murdered. While it’s obvious to Cal that someone must have been hired to kill Hal, local cops believe Cal may be to blame. Clearly, the best way to prove his innocence is to find out who’s behind Hal’s death. Easley’s second continues to flesh out Cal’s character but sets him against some two-dimensional bad guys. It’s an improvement over Matters of Doubt (2013), but the nitty-gritty details still don’t sing out. A fast-paced, tightly woven who-dunnit that kept me guessing to the end. Easley’s vivid landscapes and well-drawn characters evoke comparisons to James Lee Burke, and Cal Claxton is as determined and resourceful as Burke’s Dave Robicheaux.