Nothing Stays Buried (A Monkeywrench Novel) by P.J. Tracy

First Sentence:  Something horrible was going to happen to Marla.

      

Minneapolis police Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth are working to find a serial killer whose trademark is a playing card.  In a southwestern Minnesota farming community, Grace McBride and the Monkeywrench Software gang agree to work a missing-persons case.  Could the two cases be related?

      

There’s nothing quite like an evocative description—“There was no moon tonight, and the darkness seemed to swallow the beams of her headlights as if she were shining them down the throat of a monster.”—except an interesting cast of characters.  Although this is the eighth book in the series, one needn’t have read the previous books as Tracy does a wonderful job of introducing the characters and providing their backstories.  The introduction to Harley is particularly touching, and Walt Gustaufson, the father of the missing person, is very real—“Death is a part of life.  Always has been, always will be.”

      

Tracy is very good at conveying the understanding cops have for the families of the victims and how hard working homicide can be—“There were too many goddamned idioms in the English language with the word “dead” in them.  Dead end. Dead ringer. Dead reckoning. …”  She also has a deft touch at injecting wry humor and analogies into a scene—“Five miles off the freeway, Harley turned his Hummer onto a washboard dirt road and rattled their teeth for ten minutes before easing into a driveway with potholes slightly smaller than the Grand Canyon.”

      

The plot consists of multiple threads, increasing one-by-one.  The suspense and tension are ratcheted up at an increasing pace to where even the weather plays a critical role.  The ending may be a bit improbable, but it’s very gratifying.

     

“Nothing Stays Buried” is exciting, and dramatic, but it also touches one's emotions.

NOTHING STAYS BURIED (Pol Proc/Lic Invest-Dets Magozzi & Rolseth/The Monkeywrench Gang-Minnesota-Contemp) – VG

      Tracy, P.J. – 8^th in series

      G.P.  Putnam’s Sons – Aug 2017