What do you think?
Rate this book
Stuart Haydon #3
Spiral
Police detective Stuart Haydon returns in another brilliant mystery. Haydon follows a grim trail of maniacal torture to the death squads of an underground, extreme, right-wing fanatic group. Suddenly Haydon is in the middle of a full-scale Latin underworld slaughter!
Hardcover
First published October 1, 1986
3 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
David L. Lindsey
29 books93 followersI’m a native Texan, and I spent my early years a few miles from the Mexican border in Starr County. Eventually my family moved to West Texas where I grew up in the oil fields and ranches of the Colorado River valley northwest of San Angelo. After graduating from North Texas State University and spending a year in graduate school (focusing on 19th century European literature), I moved to Austin in 1970 where my wife, Joyce, and I still live.
Although I wanted to try my hand at writing fiction after graduate school, Joyce and I had two small children, and the often-rocky road to publishing and establishing a writing career seemed a risky proposition that I couldn’t afford to take at that point. I took an editing job with a small regional press and spent the next decade knocking around in a variety of jobs, including running my own small publishing company for a few years, and editing books in the humanities for the University of Texas Press.
Finally, in 1980, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to try my hand at fiction. Knowing I couldn’t afford to write for nothing, I decided to increase my odds of getting published by researching what kinds of fiction had the best chance of finding a publisher. Mystery novels rose to the top of my research results. I don’t think I’d ever read a “mystery novel” at that time, but I immediately bought a representative collection of twenty-five popular, famous, and classic mystery novels, including British and European writers. After reading these, and many more, I realized that the “genre” encompassed a startling variety of work, everything from Mickey Spillane to Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Two years later I began my writing career by publishing two mystery novels in the same year. Thirty-odd years later I’ve just finished my 15th novel. Though I began writing in the mystery genre, I eventually went on to write fiction in other areas, mostly dealing with the criminal, national, and private intelligence professions.
When I’m not writing, I spend most of my time in my library. My other pleasure is gardening and landscape work, though where I live in the hilly streets of west Austin, “gardening” most often looks like wrestling with nature, rather than gently nurturing it. Still, though it’s a lot of work, it’s a great pleasure to watch things grow. Joyce and I now sit in the shade of trees that are forty feet tall that we planted when we first moved to this place nearly thirty years ago. That’s a good thing.
Although I wanted to try my hand at writing fiction after graduate school, Joyce and I had two small children, and the often-rocky road to publishing and establishing a writing career seemed a risky proposition that I couldn’t afford to take at that point. I took an editing job with a small regional press and spent the next decade knocking around in a variety of jobs, including running my own small publishing company for a few years, and editing books in the humanities for the University of Texas Press.
Finally, in 1980, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to try my hand at fiction. Knowing I couldn’t afford to write for nothing, I decided to increase my odds of getting published by researching what kinds of fiction had the best chance of finding a publisher. Mystery novels rose to the top of my research results. I don’t think I’d ever read a “mystery novel” at that time, but I immediately bought a representative collection of twenty-five popular, famous, and classic mystery novels, including British and European writers. After reading these, and many more, I realized that the “genre” encompassed a startling variety of work, everything from Mickey Spillane to Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Two years later I began my writing career by publishing two mystery novels in the same year. Thirty-odd years later I’ve just finished my 15th novel. Though I began writing in the mystery genre, I eventually went on to write fiction in other areas, mostly dealing with the criminal, national, and private intelligence professions.
When I’m not writing, I spend most of my time in my library. My other pleasure is gardening and landscape work, though where I live in the hilly streets of west Austin, “gardening” most often looks like wrestling with nature, rather than gently nurturing it. Still, though it’s a lot of work, it’s a great pleasure to watch things grow. Joyce and I now sit in the shade of trees that are forty feet tall that we planted when we first moved to this place nearly thirty years ago. That’s a good thing.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 4, 2008
The back cover of the book quotes the Library Journal: “As Robert Parker is to Boston, Lindsey is to Houston.” Since I have been feeling a little homesick for Houston, I picked up Spiral — and dug it.
Lindsey’s been kind of hit-or-miss for me, sometimes diving way too deep into the little details and describing things almost to a molecular level. I exaggerate, but if you’ve read some of his other books, you know what I mean.
Spiral, however, was a very cool read.
Detective Stuart Haydon, that surly, deep-thinking cop finds himself with an intriguing mystery on his hands. A dead man turns up with no laces in his shoes and a carpenter’s nail in his forehead. Tied to the nail, on a black string: a large red ant. Lindsey had my attention.
Each chapter pulls the reader deeper into an underworld populated with members of los tecos de choque, a small, right-wing Latin American group of political assassins.
When Haydon’s partner is killed in the crossfire during a shootout with some of the tecos, the rules change and he vows revenge (gee, really?).
Okay, so it’s not an original plot, but the characters populating the story are really well done and Lindsey’s settings don’t get too detailed very often.
Lindsey’s been kind of hit-or-miss for me, sometimes diving way too deep into the little details and describing things almost to a molecular level. I exaggerate, but if you’ve read some of his other books, you know what I mean.
Spiral, however, was a very cool read.
Detective Stuart Haydon, that surly, deep-thinking cop finds himself with an intriguing mystery on his hands. A dead man turns up with no laces in his shoes and a carpenter’s nail in his forehead. Tied to the nail, on a black string: a large red ant. Lindsey had my attention.
Each chapter pulls the reader deeper into an underworld populated with members of los tecos de choque, a small, right-wing Latin American group of political assassins.
When Haydon’s partner is killed in the crossfire during a shootout with some of the tecos, the rules change and he vows revenge (gee, really?).
Okay, so it’s not an original plot, but the characters populating the story are really well done and Lindsey’s settings don’t get too detailed very often.
October 18, 2020
Read in 1987. Spiral is a truly top notch, gutsy, realistic thriller. Haydon follows a grim trail of maniacal torture to underground death squads. One of my favorites that year.
November 3, 2012
Lindsey is good - damned good. And I probably wld not have picked him up if he had not been living and writing in Austin while I was there. Spiral slipped through the cracks somehow, but that simply gave me a chance to read one of my once-favored authors who does not publish as frequently as some others...
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
January 24, 2011
David Lindsey is a local Texas author who uses Downtown Houston and Detective Hayden as his canvas. Spiral is by far his most realistic and gritty detective novel so far IMO and if this isn't picked up as a movie, I will be sorely disappointed.
December 20, 2010
Lindsey is, as usual, dark, gruesome and twisted. I've met him once and he is the nicest, most mild-mannered guy. His books are the exact opposite. But they never fail to impress.
February 23, 2012
lost interest feb 2012
April 1, 2018
Jim read this one, not Robbie. This is before we began rating them, so this may be more like a 4.5.
July 8, 2013
good houston settings. well done.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews