Name: A Lonesome Place for Dying
Rating: 5 (8 reviews)
Author: Nolan Chase

About this book

Summary

Book Summary

Perfect for fans of C. J. Box and William Kent Krueger, a sleepy town is rocked to its core when a dead body is found in this debut novel.

In the quiet seaside town of Blaine, Washington, the most serious police work involves dealing with stray coyotes or ticketing speeders along the I-5. But on Ethan Brand's first day as the town's chief of police, he finds a threat on his porch, along with a gruesome souvenir, a bloody animal heart.

There are plenty of people who are upset about Ethan replacing the last Chief, but when a body shows up on the railroad tracks, Ethan has to turn his focus from the threats against him to the first homicide case the town has seen in years. Blaine's population is only five thousand, but eight million vehicles pass through its railroad crossing every year. It's the perfect site for drug smuggling, human trafficking, larceny, and murder.

Ethan begins to realize that the small town has many more secrets than its quiet surface suggests. With no one to trust, his job already on the line, and the threats getting bolder and more reckless, Ethan Brand must find the killers and bring them to justice before anyone else winds up dead.

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Media Reviews

"[A] standout procedural ... Chase throws a lot of balls in the air, and he juggles them like a seasoned pro, managing to carve out a distinctly memorable protagonist in the process." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Chase debuts his lonesome, reflective lawman with this well-written, complex case. Fans of Craig Johnson's Longmire will enjoy." —Library Journal (starred review)

"Fans of Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone and Lee Child's Jack Reacher will find much to like." —Booklist

"Fans of Craig Johnson and CJ Box will enjoy Nolan Chase's debut novel. A Lonesome Place for Dying is a slow burn mystery that builds to an explosive finish." —Melinda Leigh, #1 WSJ bestselling author

"A cat-and-mouse game ... Exciting and realistically drawn." —Steve Aberle, Great Mysteries and Thrillers

"A Lonesome Place for Dying is a stunning first novel introducing a new, badass, hunk of a hero in Ethan Brand, the PNW heartthrob you didn't know you needed. This book is chock full of deadly characters, salt-water-soaked secrets, and... a twist that made me gasp out loud." —Meredith Hambrock, author of Other People's Secrets

This information about A Lonesome Place for Dying was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Cloggie Downunder

cleverly plotted crime fiction
A Lonesome Place For Dying is the first book to feature Ethan Brand by award-winning Canadian-born author, Sam Wiebe, writing as Nolan Chase. On the morning he’s due to take over from Police Chief Frank Keogh in the Washington State border town of Blaine, someone has left on Ethan Brand’s doorstep a heart (too large to be human) and a printed note telling him to leave. Ethan is not inclined to leave his home town: he heads off to work.

Before he can even be sworn in by the mayor, he’s out by the railway line near Mo’s scrapyard, examining the body of a young woman. She has been stabbed, but there’s nothing to identify her, nor any sign of how she got there.

There are quite a few candidates potentially responsible for the gory warning (which soon escalates to a death threat), including a disgruntled suspended cop, rivals for the position of chief, criminals whose activities he has curtailed, and a romantic indiscretion, but Ethan has to put that aside to focus on solving the murder (and proving his suitability as chief).

While he has a handful of conscientious and competent officers who between them manage to give the Jane Doe a name and find other evidence, Ethan is frustrated that his two senior officers are squabbling rather than working as a team.

Diligent investigation uncovers an impersonation, another murder and a missing person. As well, there’s a white-suited character in town who looks and acts very much like a hit-man: who is paying him and who might be his target? Ethan is convinced the local drug smugglers, the McCandless family must be involved.

Ethan is an interesting protagonist, a lawman with integrity, insight and intelligence, and a few quirks (his chess game with the diner waitress, his fondness for the blue-eyed coyote, his rapport with various locals, his naivete with the non-binary journalist) that will endear him to the reader.

Chase gives the reader cleverly-plotted crime fiction with a few twists and surprises, a dramatic climax and a very satisfactory resolution. He easily evokes his setting, and Jerry Todd’s cover is striking. Chase has set up the town and its inhabitants with plenty of scope for further books in this location, and more of this cast would be most welcome.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books.

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