Bonnie Hellevig

This was a fun read as this past summer I did a Grand Canyon rafting trip, so it was enjoyable for all the action to take place on the familiar river. I could relate to the various characters and the relationships that form on such a trip. I read the entire book in one sitting!

It was fun to read a new Sherlock Holmes adventure, and Horowitz nailed the style quite well. But it was over long and the tale was ultimately distasteful, which left me feeling sullied.

My second Jim Thompson novel. The other was Hell of a Woman, which I did not really enjoy. But Pop 1260 was more of what I was hoping for. Sheriff Nick Corey seems dumb as a stump, but then pulls off surprising, off-the-wall treachery. Surprisingly scary, too.

He's hilarious in understatement at times, and reports things as the opposite of what he means.

I loved him talking to a detective from a famous agency about how they put down a railroad strike: “Now, by golly, that really took nerve,” I said. “Them railroad workers throwin' chunks of coal at you an' splashin' you with water, and you fellas without nothin' to defend yourself with except shotguns an' automatic rifles!

Wow, this book is spectacularly awful.

I read this book a few decades ago, and find that I think of it fairly often. Such an epic sweeping scouring beginning, that's the part that has stuck with me