Back Road to Murder

A great read. Back Road To Murder is one of those rare, well written, hard to put down mysteries that are punctuated by flashes of insight and stimulating social massage. Nestled among the glass skyscrapers in downtown Portland, Oregon, is Pierre’s 5-Star Restaurant. There, on Tuesdays, a cabal of wealthy old-boys met to parade their show-and-don’t-tell young women. Inside Pierre’s, for those few hours every Tuesday, the elegant restaurant becomes “1920s-POSH.” William Bartlet, Esq., head of a prestigious Portland law firm and Senior old boy, is blackmailed. An escalating damage control follows with the skillful set-up of redheaded Leyland Sowers, a small town logger, for the murder of Bartlet’s mistress. Detective Martin “Red” Goodloe believes the overwhelming evidence against Sowers is “too convenient.” As Goodloe—exotic latte in hand—does the legwork to find the real killer, he gives an insider’s tour of Portland and Sultan, the isolated and quirky hometown where Sowers has lived his whole life. Candid glimpses of big-city-Portland and small-town-Sultan reveal parallel abuse of power, exploitation of women, and, most terrible of all, the reason the Sheriff’s daughter can only trust redheaded men.