Call Down the Hawk: A Latouche County Mystery

by Sheila Simonson

Overview

Jane August, an artist who’s “a refugee from a wealthy family,” is visiting her estranged father and his fifth wife on the Columbia River Gorge. Doing a good turn for a wine maker from neighboring Hawk Farm, she is swept into a morass of family secrets and betrayals—in both the cozy farmhouse and the palatial estate.

Call Down the Hawk centers on two victims, Frank August and Bill Hough (pronounced Hawk), both of whom enjoy conflict for its own sake. Hawk Farm, in the flood plain of the Columbia, is one focus of trouble, with the recent suicide of Hough and his daughter’s trial by fire as a soldier in Afghanistan. Another is the August mansion on the bluff above, when Jane August’s father vanishes amid charges of his bank’s fiscal malfeasance. Undersheriff Rob Neill is called to the scene when a bulldozer in the orchard uncovers Frank August’s corpse. Until Chief Madeline Thomas of the Klalos clears the murk of violence from the land, Rob won’t be able to uncover the truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564745972
Publisher:	Perseverance Press
Publication date:	09/11/2017
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sheila Simonson, a native of the Pacific Northwest, is the author of fifteen novels, nine of them mysteries in two series. She is a retired English and history college teacher, and she lives in Vancouver, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

07/31/2017
A lively, diverse cast—mainly the members of the Hough and August families—makes up only partly for the creaky plot of Simonson’s fourth mystery set in Washington’s Latouche County (after 2013’s Beyond Confusion). Patriarch Bill Hough’s recent suicide leaves Alice, a member of the Klalo tribe, unprepared for widowhood. Bill’s daughter, Judith, an army vet, suffers from PTSD, and his alienated son, Russell, returns home after Bill’s death. When often-married Frank August, a retired banker who owns a vineyard—and who, along with his current wife, windsurfer Libby, shares a homestead with Frank’s two grown children, banker son Gus and artist daughter Jane—disappears and his body later turns up in a cherry orchard at the Hough clan’s Hawk Farm, undersheriff Rob Neill investigates. Libby’s flirtations and affairs, as well as a romance between Russell and Jane, generate some heat, but the contrived resolution of Frank’s murder will leave readers dissatisfied. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"...fast-moving action and suspense.” -- Library Journal

“...intriguing.” —- Kirkus Reviews

“very highly recommended...” —- I Love a Mystery

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
Artist Jane August is visiting her estranged father, Frank, along with her stepmother when Frank disappears, leaving Jane caught between the tales of two neighboring dysfunctional families. Like Simonson's earlier series books (e.g., Beyond Confusion), multiple characters narrate this thoughtful, leisurely paced mystery that includes spectacular descriptions of the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River Gorge.—LH

Library Journal

2017-07-17
Two dysfunctional families in Washington state are sunk in a morass of murder and suicide.Judith Hough is a war hero who suffers from PTSD. Her father, another war hero, was also a mean drunk and a bully who recently committed suicide. After his death, his son, Russ, returned home to get the family farm in the fictional Latouche County up and running for his hapless mother. Russ, whose mother is a member of the Klalos tribe, which owns land and businesses near the Columbia River Gorge, had left home after he graduated high school and hasn't been seen since. Not even Jack Redfern, the uncle who pretty much raised him, knew that he went to college, earned several degrees, and landed an excellent job with a major wine company. Next to the Hough farm is the land of wealthy, canny, nasty Frank August, who's getting into the wine business. Frank turned over his bank to his son, Francis Jr., then took all his money out before it went bottom up, leaving Junior holding the bag. Jane, the daughter from Frank's first marriage, an artist with enough money of her own to do what she pleases, is staying with her father and his fifth wife, 30-year-old Libby, while looking for a place to live nearby. Jane meets Russ, who already has one artificial leg, when she helps him after an accident in his cherry orchard. When Frank vanishes and his SUV turns up buried deep in brush near the river, Judith would probably be a suspect or a witness were she not in the hospital in a coma after trying to kill herself. Jane and Russ' burgeoning romantic relationship is stressed by the investigation that follows the discovery of Frank's body buried in the orchard. Realizing that she and Russ will never have a solid relationship until the mystery is solved, Jane reluctantly investigates. The forth in Simonson's Latouche County series (Beyond Confusion, 2013, etc.) marries a story that draws you in with some fascinating characters worth being drawn to. The ending, alas, is a letdown.

Kirkus Reviews