SHOOTING CROWS AT DAWN

Escaped murderers, a Texas sheriff and an author who isn’t afraid to spill a lot of blood.

Crime novelist Grace (Daniel, 2010, etc.) sets up a classic police procedural, but whets the plot with cutthroat Texas politics told in the sharp perspective of a remorseless escaped con. Aging Sheriff Jubal Dark put murderer Carl Alvin Spence in prison four years ago—since then, Spence has thought only of freedom and revenge. After his escape from a Louisiana prison, Spence aims for Mexico with two co-conspirators along for the ride, but he can’t pass through Texas without trying for Dark’s life. Meanwhile, Dark, sheriff of Francine County for nearly 20 years, focuses on his upcoming, long-odds reelection bid. Two years before, a local girl was found raped and murdered in her home; despite Dark’s best efforts, the killer is still walking free. Spence rumbles through the county on a murderous romp two weeks before the election—although he fails to take out the sheriff, the trail of stolen cars and dead bodies does nothing to help Dark’s reelection bid. Relentless Dark vows to stop Spence before the election, so the chase is on. Initially, the bloody details of Spence’s violence—told from his brutal perspective—feel gratuitous, but as the novel progresses, his cunning and ruthlessness hit the right notes for guilty pleasure. One drawback: Grace has a tendency to overwork his similes and metaphors with impressive comparisons from unlikely sources, distracting the reader. Dimwitted escapee Bobby Joe Blaine poetically compares a dying man to “a puppet with a cut string.” Luckily, the touch of literary license doesn’t sever the tension.

Revenge and justice burn across Texas in this gripping, grisly shootout.