This will be a rare double review. I need to pick up my pace, as I’ve been running through Jon Talton’s David Mapstone series pretty quickly. It’s not that I don’t have other things to do than read, but I’m fighting a respiratory infection at the moment and I keep stopping for breaks. And when I take a break, I read. And when books are these good, the breaks tend to get long.

David Mapstone, if you recall yesterday’s review, is an unemployed academic historian, hired by his friend, chief deputy sheriff Mike Peralta, to investigate cold cases in Phoenix. When Camelback Falls opens, Mike has just been sworn in as the new sheriff – but a few minutes later he’s cut down by an assassin. As Mike fights for his life in the hospital, David finds himself – much against his will – appointed interim sheriff.

Soon David finds himself investigating another cold case – the murder of two deputies. Evidence he uncovers seems to suggest considerable corruption in the sheriff’s office – corruption that seems to involve Mike himself.

Moving on to the next book, that’s Dry Heat. This time out, David investigates the death of a homeless man whose case becomes more interesting when an FBI badge is found sewn into his jacket. The badge is that of the only FBI agent ever murdered in Arizona, a crime long unsolved. Meanwhile, David’s new wife Leslie, a digital forensic detective, has become the target of assassins, sent by a Russian gangster whose operation she helped close down.

The David Mapstone books are excellent in several ways. The prose is very good; the characters are vivid. The mysteries are genuinely intriguing. And the values generally please me (though David and Leslie cohabit before marriage).

I’m really enjoying these books.