ANHOW review of books: "Lizardskin" by Carsten Stroud -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 14:23:16 03/18/02 Mon
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject:

ANHOW review of books: "Lizardskin" by Carsten Stroud

Published: 1992 by Bantam Books
Genre: police thriller

This novel features veteran Montan state trooper Beau MacAllister, a wise-cracking good ol' boy who has great instincts and is not too concerned with protocal. Beau is called to a truck stop to stop a robbery in progress - but the whole thing seems fishy to him and he ends up shooting the supposed victim in the butt during a 3 way fight between Beau, the "victim" and several Indians using compound bows. Beau suspects something is amiss and tugs on this loose thread until he finds the conspiracy.

The characters in this story are well-written - Beau is particulrly well developed, especially for a cop novel. The DA character (Vanessa Ballard) is quite memorable and "feels" like a real person, rather than a caricature. Even McAllister's nemesis, Dwight Hogelan, shows signs of growth during the book.

All of this makes the end of the book very disappointing. The first 90% of the book is a great cop thriller - but the end is very hoaky and formulaic. It is like he finished the book under pressure and ran out of time. For example, he was maneuvering an Indian character into becoming a second Crazy Horse destined to lead a spiritual revival of the Plains Indians. However, 50 pages of character development was quickly dismissed in one page at the end. Why bother?

Due to the disappointing end of this novel I have to give a book that would have had a solid A a "C=".

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