Mystery Scene Review

Vapor Trail by Chuck Logan
HarperCollins, March, 2003

Phil Broker is back in it again--up to his neck. What starts out as a walk in the park--he's agreed to be a house sitter in Stillwater, Minnesota--ends up with an angry ex-partner threatening revenge and the murder of an accused pedophile. Meanwhile, his wife has not returned from a trip. Broker is used to her long absences in her work for a clandestine federal agency, but this time she's got their daughter with her.

Years earlier, when Broker thought he was going to have a career as a cop, he partnered with Harry Cantrell in St. Paul. A series of unfortunate incidents culminated in the brutal murder of Cantrell's new wife and Broker's resignation from the force. Broker knows Cantrell, who lives in Stillwater, still blames him for that death. Prodded by the county sheriff who suspects Cantrell of murdering an accused pedophile, Broker reluctantly agrees to contact his ex-partner. Cantrell has descended into a barely functional alcoholic existence, still threatening vengeance against Broker.

There's a big cast in this taut, suspenseful mystery. Logan handles his characters well, and questions pile up as the author drives the reader through a steamy, humid, exhausting summer. Through incident after incident, and scene after scene, we are inexorably forced to confront the twisted and the sane, all trying in some desperation to find their way out of the circumstances into which the author has placed them. This is a fine, enthralling novel.

- Carl Brookins

This review appeared in the Summer 2003 issue (#80) of the magazine