64. Ghost Towns - Betsy Thornton

No. 3 in the Chloe Newcomb series/Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona
for: Adults
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's/Minotaur, 2002
260 pgs.
Rating: 5

I found quite a few places where editing was needed - words were added or out of order. Not off-putting, but surprising....

Chloe is called to deliver the news to his family that local Judge Cal Thomas has been murdered. Found dead in the ghost town of Windy City, near Tombstone, with no clues and no leads, the Judge's dysfunctional family aren't coping well. She discovers clues that perhaps two of her own friends may be involved....her good friend Nate, a local reporter, and her boyfriend Craig, both disappear. She travels all over Cochise County and up to Tucson, to discover clues and follow trails and dead ends. Thornton fleshes out the setting as well as she might a good character. I couldn't put this down. It was a quick read, and I headed off for Bisbee when I finished it, to get a feel for the setting myself. (Tombstone, Windy City (perhaps Gleeson?) Bisbee, St. David, Naco)

There's a sixth, brand new title just out....so I hope to plunge into four and five asap. Great read.

AUTHOR Betsy Thornton

Betsy Thornton writes the Chloe Newcombe series, set in Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona. Chloe is a Victim Advocate, which means that she works for Cochise County to help notify next-of-kin, to be a liaison between crime victims and the courts, to help victims in any way she can. The Cochise County setting (primarily the Bisbee area, with jaunts to Sierra Vista, Tombstone, St. David, and Tucson) is almost like a character in the stories. I love local settings…especially in mysteries….and as soon as I begin one of these I just gobble it up. And it seems that Thornton writes with first-hand knowledge...since the jacket flaps of her books say that she, too, is a Victim Advocate for the Cochise Country Attorney Victim's Witness program.

1. The Cowboy Rides Away (1996)
2. High Lonesome Road (2001)
3. Ghost Towns (2002)
4. Dead for the Winter (2004)
5. A Song for You
6. Dream Queen (just published in August, 2010, a prequel to the first five!)

It also appears that she’s written one stand-alone mystery: A Whole New Life.

She's done some local author signings, but they seem few and far between....once or twice at Clues Unlimited, here in Tucson, once in Scottsdale's Poisoned Pen Bookstore, and a couple at Atalanta, an interesting, incense-filled, used bookstore/art supply store on the main street in Bisbee.

Her website is http://betsythornton.com/

43. - High Lonesome Road - Betsy Thornton

Chloe Newcombe #2 Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona
2001
paper $5.99
250 pgs
Rating: 4
Adult murder mystery

These Bisbee, AZ based mysteries are easy to gobble up. This one wasn't quite as intriguing as the first, The Cowboy Rides Away, but it had very interesting characters, and the description of the parched, lonely desert and stretches of road in southeastern Arizona are well-written but not overdone.

It was a bit disappointing that almost all of the characters in this novel are new. There was some nice wrapping-up of some loose ends from the first novel, and if you hadn't read it you'd probably wonder what was going on. There are some loose ends left here, too, and I'll bet they get referred to in the third in the series, Ghost Towns, which was published just a year later. Can't wait to find out!

Twenty years previously, Chloe had spent the summer with her brother James (now dead) in Venice, California. His close friend, Erica Hill, had lived upstairs, and they had gotten to know each other a bit as the summer progressed. Now Chloe discovers that Erica has been living right here in Dudley for the past eighteen years, and she has a 16 year-old son, Troy. But then Erica gets murdered while driving the county bookmobile, and the mystery begins. We meet some interesing characters: Stuart, the defense lawyer, who asks Chloe out and they begin an arms-length friendship; Dot Stone, retired, no-nonsense third grade teacher; Larry and Nelson, the handsome gay couple who live up the street from Erica; Sally Smith, Erica's library coworker, who is a little nuts;, Troy, the innocent son.......and on and on.

Kyle Bartlett, the sheriff's investigator from the first book and who Chloe still pines for, has disappeared up north somewhere and is replaced by Ed Masters, who Chloe considers....well, not quite competent. Chloe asks her own questions, puts two and two together (coming up with four and a half), and we figure out what happened as she does.

42. The Cowboy Rides Away - Betsy Thornton

#1 Chloe Newcomb/ Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona
Published: July, 1996
Adult Murder Mystery
232 pgs.
St. Martin's Press
Rating: 5 Loved it, couldn't put it down - luscious writing, here's a totally random passage:

"I drove back to Dudley through the red dirt desert slowly, my headache still there but better. The heat would soon be turning the silver-green grasses to gold and the little frogs on the edges of the rain ponds at Randall's would be dead, little dried-up husks, after all the lying watery promise. The air still smelled burnt, but I couldn't see flames, smoke, anywhere, more like the air itself was not air at all but colorless fire."

Chloe Newcomb has moved to small town (TINY town) Dudley in the very southeastern corner of Arizona, in the middle of the desert, but surrounded by the mountains. It's late summer, monsoon season, and Betsy Thornton's descriptions of the landscape, the weather, the town/s, are equisite, rich. Chloe is a volunteer "Victim Witness", helping the Cochise County Sheriff's department notify and help victims of violent crimes and their next-of-kin. This also entails giving the "bad news" to families. And this story is about one such notification, one that becomes very personal and keeps you guessing and wondering....and sometimes smiling....until almost the very end.

Leroy Harris/Randall Hartmann has shot himself in the head, but of course, since I've already crowed about this being a great murder mystery, it does turn out to be murder. But there's so much more, since the dead guy ends up being Chloe's first love, from college, and she keeps this a secret, telling no one. We're introduced to a great cast of characters, an interesting community, and the start of a series that I'm excited to dive into!