POWER & WAY

Locander’s police procedural centers around a train wreck in West Virginia.

Frank Campbell, aged 65, has seen better days. Frank works in a railyard in Granite Point, West Virginia. He is easily aggravated, walks with a limp, drinks too much, and doesn’t get along particularly well with his son, Kevin. At the beginning of the story, his friend and colleague, Tom Ryder, is about to retire. Tom is a few years older than Frank, though he is in much better condition…or so it seems. Soon after Tom retires, Frank finds his friend’s body. Tom apparently shot himself with an automatic pistol. As disconcerting as Tom’s death is, there are more shocking events to follow. Not long after Tom’s suicide, nine people are killed when a passenger train called the Allegheny Limited crashes. It is noted that “The Allegheny Limited had not jumped the rails. It was as if the rails disappeared beneath it.” Could someone have sabotaged the tracks? Enter investigator Andrea “Andy” Mayland. This is not the first train accident that Andy has looked into, but this case has a number of peculiarities. For one, a local boy with autism named Beau was found injured but alive amid the wreckage. Beau is known for his love of trains and he likes nothing more than recording them on video; could he be involved in the derailing? Another possible suspect is the rage-filled and self-loathing Frank. He is prone to drunken outbursts, but could he really be responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people?

The author takes time to populate Granite Point with memorable characters. (It may be a tough place, but the residents have engaging personalities.) Kevin Campbell has his beloved hot rod, a “an auto cinema-worthy of George Lucas’s American Graffiti.” Kevin’s wife, Trisha, is a former barrel racer who is thrilled when she welcomes a new horse into her life. Although Trisha did not buy the horse, Kevin sarcastically names it “Bankruptcy” and recalls how, when the couple previously owned a horse, it had “nearly pushed them over the cliff and into the Valley of Fiscal Destitution.” Frank refers to an old woman in town that he strongly dislikes as “Josef Stalin in support hose!” Such humanizing details elevate the story above a dry procedural. The investigation itself leads to some obvious moments; Andy explains to Kevin, “When something like this happens, we look at everything,” including whether the train wreck was intentional. Kevin warns Andy that she needs to be careful in her questioning—otherwise, “[She] might find doors that won’t open when [she] come[s] knocking.” One would assume that an investigator would need to look at all of the possible causes for such an accident and that an investigator would know to be careful in their questioning. None of this is sufficient to derail the story; at one point, the local sheriff asks Kevin point blank, “Well, how’s about the Allegheny Limited? What’s your take? You think it was an accident?” The reader, drawn in by the distinctive characters, will want to find out.

A welcome mix of familiar yet complex characters and a deadly mystery to solve.