Hook, Line and Murder

From Booklist Rigel Lynx, an unemployed investigative reporter from San Francisco, has landed an assignment to write a magazine feature on steelhead fishing in Sonoma County. Trouble is, he knows nothing of the rigor and skills involved in pursuing steelhead. Sarah Gordon, a beautiful innkeeper, offers Rigel lodging and badly needed angling instruction. Just as Rigel is learning how to flyfish without tangling the line, an art dealer dies, and the curious writer wades in to untangle a school of suspects and motives. Elkjers first book boasts realistic characters and an exotic yet plausible mystery. It avoids the biggest pitfall of sportsbased mysteriesthe fishing scenes are generally realistic without overwhelming either characters or plot. Effectively capturing the feel of steelheading in northern Californias rugged rivers, Elkjer evokes Russell Chathams and Michael Checchios vivid outdoor essays while echoing the hardboiled moral choices faced by Dashiell Hammetts characters. John Rowen Product Description When a notorious big city art dealer is found dead at a local inn, vacationing San Francisco reporter Rigel Lynx is asked to help the county sheriff determine how the fatal accident occurred, and he soon is embroiled in the towns dark secrets From Library Journal Rigel Rye Lynx, a blacklisted reporter from San Francisco, heads for Pomo Bluff, in northern California, to research an article on flyfishing. The discovery of a dead art gallery owner there sparks Ryes investigative urge, and he soon finds that the dead man was a key witness in a severalyearsold local murder case. Elkers fluid prose camouflages a nicely convoluted plot and a deceptively mildmannered protagonist who contends with a devious sheriff, a seductive innkeeper, a garrulous homeless man, and the brawny brother of the woman wrongly imprisoned for murder. A solid and entertaining first novel.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. From The New Yorker Elkjers first book boasts realistic characters and an exotic mystery. Effectively capturing the feel of steelheading in northern Californias rugged rivers, Elkjer evokes Russell Chathams and Michald Checchios vivid outdoor essays while echoing the hardboiled moral choices faced by Dashiell Hammetts characters. Review Elkjer is such a good writer that I found the fishing sections fascinating, and all I know about fish is how to bone a trout. He hooked me; Ill be back for his next story. Contra Costa Sunday Times, March 22, 1998Elkjers first book boasts realistic characters and an exotic yet plausible mystery. Effectively capturing the feel of steelheading in northern Californias rugged rivers, Elkjer evokes Russell Chathams and Michael Checchios vivid outdoor essays while echoing the hardboiled moral choices faced by Dashiell Hammetts characters. Booklist, vol 93, #21I read this one straight through at the dinner table, in the bathroom, at night in bed. I couldnt put it down. In a murder thriller based in Northern Californias steelhead country, Thom Elkjer gives us a little murder, lots of suspense, some romance, and best of all, some great, hilarious fishing scenes (imagine chasing steelhead on your firstever fly fishing trip). Youll love this book. Gary LaFontaine, The Book Mailer, Spring/Summer 1998Mysterys Most Wanted: Bests of the Year Best Outdoors Sleuth: Rigel Lynx, novice fly fisherman, in Hook, Line & Murder by Thom Elkjer Booklist, vol. 94, #16Other than the fishhooks protagonist Rigel Lynx casts into the woods instead of the stream, everything works in Hook, Line and Murder. The plot has nice twists and moves quickly and plausibly to resolution and there is enough action to please any thriller fan. Hook Line & Murder isnt just a good first mystery, it is a very good book, with the capacity to involve a variety of readers. I hope well see more of Thom Elkjer and his Rigel Lynx. The Snooper, vol.