Author: Ridley Pearson
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN: 13: 978-0399155727

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Be careful, it is easily to become an addict of New York Timers best-selling author Ridley Pearson, although I have to admit that it took me a few chapters to get into his latest novel, Killer Summer. 

The backdrop of Pearson’s recent novel is Sun Valley, Idaho where the rich and famous congregate particularly around the time the annual wine auction is held. As our story unfolds, Walt Fleming, who is described as a “hick” sheriff and his department are given the task of guarding a famous trio of wine bottles that will be auctioned off and which are sure to fetch a huge price. The wine was supposedly a gift to John Adams from Thomas Jefferson upon Adam’s return from Holland, where he just secured financing necessary to save the republic before the United States existed.

During his day off, Walt decides to go fly- fishing and reconnect with his seventeen -year old nephew Kevin who is still recovering after the sudden death of his father. Always with work on his mind, Walt catches a suspicious truck towing a Ford driving past him. He can hardly stop himself from investigating what this is all about, particularly that tow trucks don’t necessarily venture into this part of the woods where there is no repair shop in the direction the truck is heading. He also detects that the towed car has a driver slumped over the steering wheel. Eventually, what Walt discovers is there has been a kidnapping of a courier and the theft of his valuable cargo. 

As Pearson spins his tale we learn about a movie producer Teddy Sumner, one of the participants in the wine auction, who is in a precarious financial situation, however, he is still determined to keep his cheeky teenage daughter Summer in the manner he believes she deserves. As a result and in order to maintain his high life style, he decides to become enmeshed in some shady activities that eventually lead to disastrous consequences. Summer, however, is not exactly ecstatic in being forced to join her father at Sun Valley, as she would rather be elsewhere with a tennis buff that she recently met.

What subsequently ensues is the involvement of Walt, his girlfriend Fiona, Deputy Brandon and Walt’s father in a voluted plot entangling a trio of criminals together with Sumner, his daughter and Kevin.

I have to concede that at times I found Pearson’s plot quite confusing and it did require my patience to wade through some of the puzzling events, figuring out the characters, and waiting to see the connections among them. However, as patience is a virtue, I was rewarded as Pearson does manage to neatly tie things together towards the end.

Pearson has a talent in capturing dialogue as if he has overheard it and as a result creates such vivid characters that we can almost reach out and touch them. This is particularly evident with Kevin and Sumner. As for Walt and as a side note, Pearson admits in his blog that the country sheriff was based on a true- life character that he has known for over twenty years. However, he used his imagination in painting a slightly different persona and one in which has a strained relationship with his father, a brother who most likely committed suicide, a nephew who lost his way, and a sister-in-law who has verbal diarrhea.

Ridley Pearson has authored over twenty novels and according to his web site has earned a reputation for stories that grip the imagination, emphasize high-tech crime and dazzling forensic detail, and, all too often, imitate life. I guess when I look back on Killer Summer, that just about sums it up.

 Click Here To Purchase Killer Summer