Before we leave this thread altogether, I'd like to
recommend a 1998
novel that I found terrific. It's called *Eleven Days*, and
it's
about a multiple murder with Satanic overtones investigated
by a rural
Sheriff's Office over the course of (surprise!) eleven days.
The
author is Donald Harstad, who spent nearly three decades as
a deputy
sheriff in Clayton County, IA. The book is said to be
"Inspired by
Actual Events." Good writing, good characterization,
excellent
presentation of small-town police work. Harstad's debut
ought to be
carefully looked at when the "first novel" honors get handed
out next
year (but, having said that, I've probably jinxed the poor
guy).
It occurs to me that, to the degree that the police
procedural is
considered part of the HB lexicon (and judging from posts,
most of you
do), you're a lot more likely to find cop novels, and cop
series, with
rural settings, than you are PI or crime novels. Hillary
Waugh's
small-town police chief Fred Fellows, Tony Hillerman's
Navajo Tribal
cops Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, and Dave Pedneau's West VA
DA's
Investigator Whit Pinchon are just three examples. - Jim
Doherty
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