Eureka
I not only devoured this book, I went out and bought four others written by this author and have since read three of them. Readers may recognize this author as having written Sharky’s Machine and Primal Fear, both of which were made into motion pictures. I believe this novel is his finest work to date.
Thomas Culhane is a poor kid in turn-of-the-century Eureka, California, where the Wild West still thrives and baseball is just beginning to catch on. He escapes his seemingly dead-end existence in Eureka by enlisting in the Marines. He heads to Europe to fight in World War I and comes home to Eureka a wounded hero. Shortly after arriving, he becomes the deputy sheriff and embarks on a mission to clean up his hometown. Two decades later Los Angeles detective Zeke Bannon is investigating an apparent accident that takes the life of a lonely widow. Some things about the unfortunate spinster don’t add up, and before long he’s heading to a town called San Pietro, formerly known as Eureka. There he runs into Sheriff Thomas Culhane, now a candidate for governor, and the fun begins.
Fast paced, enthralling, and well written, this novel is highly recommended.
