Wednesday 15 June 2016

JIM STEWART - OCHOCO REACH (2015)


Synopsis/blurb…….

Mike's usual strategy was to gently stir the pot and wait for patterns to emerge, but this case was boiling over from the day Willimina showed up at his office. Freelance investigator Mike Ironwood doesn't hesitate for a moment when a lovely stranger asks him to help her get to the bottom of suspicious happenings on her family cattle ranch. The case is intriguing, and Willimina even more so. Six days in, the case has turned up two dead bodies, an alphabet soup of secretive federal investigators, and a client who just might be The One. That's when things get complicated. When a greedy DEA agent and his complicated and deadly triggerman kidnap Willy, Mike enlists help from his brother and sets out to rescue her from a conflicted cartel jefe. The trail leads them deep into Mexico, but they come home with dangerous unfinished business. Ochoco Reach introduces Mike Ironwood, his special ops brother Daniel, and Bucket, a Catahoula leopard dog who is equally at home herding cattle and pinning bad guys to the floor. Together, they are formidable allies who also seem to attract trouble at every turn.

Having failed to review (maybe too strong a word)…… pen some thoughts on my reading over the past 3 months, I’m struggling to know where to begin now.

Well a couple of months on from reading this one, I remember the characters and the major plot details and the outcome, so I must have had fairly positive thoughts when reading this. (Scored it a 3.5 from 5, just after reading)

I do like PI novels generally, probably more so than mysteries centred-around police officers. This one wasn’t too bad. There was an interesting plot concerning our ranch owner Willy who had been receiving veiled threats. Soon after the involvement of Mike this escalated to her kidnap arranged by a love-stricken cartel leader and the participation of a rogue US government agent. Mike Ironwood – a bit of a loved-up puppy dog himself by this stage, recruits his half-brother – half Native American Daniel to conduct some black-ops of their own south of the border in Mexico and recover Willy.   

Plenty to like…….plus points – a decent plot which held together fairly well; several story strands which entertained me – dead bodies, kidnap, a rogue agent, Mexico, drugs, people-trafficking, gun-play and a fairly satisfactory outcome. (Possibly a couple of slightly unlikely coincidences helped us arrive there.)

The relationship between Mike and his half-brother Daniel was entertaining, I liked how they bounced off each other and could trust how they each had the other’s back. Mike and his dog also scored higher than me than the love angle between Mike and Willy. I wasn’t quite reaching for the sick-bucket as the romance between Mike and Willy developed, but it was slightly irritating. Maybe, I don’t like romantic elements featuring so strongly in my books.  

Probably not a crime fiction read and maybe less mystery genre than a kind of action thriller. We know what is happening fairly early on and it’s a question of correcting the wrong. Overall enjoyable without threatening the top all-time reads list.  Would I want to read more from the author? On balance, no. No reflection on him, just I’ve too many other books that need reading.

3.5 from 5

I received a copy of this one from Jessica @ MBM Book Publicity in return for an honest review. Cheers.



Ochoco Reach was enjoyed over at Crime Fiction Loverhere

There’s more about the author over at the publisher’s website – word hermit press here.  

Read in April, 2016

12 comments:

  1. Sounds like a decent read, Col, and I'm glad to hear it. And I do like that setting. Even the cover evokes it!

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    1. I've read much worse in my time Margot and the fact I can recall fair amounts of the book a few months on, with my dreadful memory speaks volumes. More to like than not.

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  2. Wot Margot said -- I was just about to type very much the same comment, in very similar words, when I glanced upward and noticed she'd done it already. The setting's a big draw, for me.

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    1. Both on the same page....great minds eh? I did enjoy visiting Oregon and Mexico!

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  3. This could almost be a western, Col. Probably a mix of crime fiction and western, thanks to the setting in the main.

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    1. Prashant - I see what you mean - cattle ranching and the setting. Definitely more contemporary though.

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  4. Col – As the others said above, this sounds like a good read – action, mystery, the west, and a dog. I Googled the breed and would not want that badass pooch chasing me.

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    1. I quite liked the relationship between Mike and his dog. His is a bit better behaved than my two!

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  5. I was just reading an Agatha Christie where a dog features a lot! Do you think the similarities end there, by any chance?

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    1. Very probably. I suppose I could read the Christie and report back.....nah, maybe not

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  6. I agree with Prashant, sounds like a present-day Western. Also sounds like it could be made into a movie.

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    1. I suppose it has the damsel in distress type theme which a lot of westerns had.

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