Matters of Doubt
A Cal Claxton Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Who can you turn to when society spits you out?
Former LA prosecutor Cal Claxton has escaped to the Oregon wine country after his wife's suicide, determined to live a less-harried life. He's gotten a dog for company and takes pleasure in simple things like hiking, fishing, and crafting gourmet meals from the area's bounty, which he enjoys with local wines. He has no career ambitions, other than to sustain a small practice that will allow him to pay his bills. Then he's approached by a homeless street artist from Portland who wants him to take on the cold case investigation of his mother's murder. The young man believes his mother's boyfriend killed her eight years earlier, but the police were never able to solve the case. Cal turns him away. But his conscience won't let him rest…
Cal takes on the case against his better judgment. Soon, however, the street artist is charged with the boyfriend's murder, and Cal has to battle bias from the press, police, and public, along with his own doubts about his client in order to determine who has committed both crimes—and why.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Easley's unremarkable debut introduces Cal Claxton, a former L.A. prosecutor who has moved to Oregon wine country following his wife's death and is now content to handle small-time cases. But when a tattooed Portland street kid, Danny "Picasso" Baxter, who looks about 20, asks Cal to help solve his mother's murder, Cal reluctantly agrees to do so. Picasso tells Cal that his mother, Nicole, disappeared mysteriously eight years earlier and that her skeletal remains were recently found in the Deschutes River. Picasso is sure the killer is Mitch Conyers, a sleazy Portland businessman who was once his mother's boyfriend. Cal digs into Nicole's life and work she was a reporter for The Oregonian and finds unsettling connections to all manner of deceitful dealings involving some of Portland's most notable citizens. Easley brings alive the world of street kids and the alternative social groups they form, but the mystery, such as it is, lacks punch.