Heat from Another Sun

Stuart Haydon #2

by David L. Lindsey

A movie cameraman is brutally killed and Houston homicide detective Stuart Haydon finds himself pitted against a perverse murderer in a case with far-reaching repercussions

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Novels, Suspense

296 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

I’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.

Reviews

[Armin · Rating 2 out of 5]

31/100 Zweiter Fall mit Millionario Stuart Haydon, der zum Zeitvertreib die Ermittlungen der Houstoner Polizei leitet und angesichts eines grausamen Mords in der Medienbranche vorzeitig seine Rekonvaleszenz unterbricht. Der zweite Handlungsstrag behandelt den manischen Kriegsfilmer Toy, der einen gewaltgeilen Medienmogol abzocken will, der auch die Firma eines großkotzigen früheren Kommilitonen von Haydon geschluckt hat. Dazu kommen noch Schnipsel von Nebenhandlungen, etwa die Pannenbeseitigungsbrigade des Medienmoguls, der als kleiner Hitler dargestellt wird oder die Affären von Haydons früherem Mitstudenten, ehe es zum großen Knall-Bumm-Showdown kommt.
Lindesy lernt noch sein Handwerk, massive Motivationslöcher, die einzelnen Handlungssträge laufen eher nebeneinander her, kein Rädchen greift so richtig ins andere, auch die Beschreibungen und Interieurs sind noch sehr linkisch. Fand es beim zweiten mal noch schlechter, weil ich inzwischen zuverlässig weiß, wozu Lindesy Mitte/Ende der Neunziger in der Lage war.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Homicide detective Stuart Haydon comes off a six month leave early to take on the case when a video tape enhancer is viciously murdered. Apparently, he was working for a man who tapes violent snuff films.

Written in 1984, I don't remember how or when this book appeared in my bookshelves but I pulled it out to read. Stuart is the type of damaged character that appeals to me but I'm not sure why I couldn't warm to this book. I've read a couple of other books by the author and liked them.

[Mikiel Ottmar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don't know what to say about this book. It is an interesting read mostly about violence and how it affects people -- the actual acts and the psychological impetus. Lindsey does have a way of drawing the reader in even if I needed to scan through some parts, it made me think about how I look at violence -- all sides.

[Andrew Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting with a bang for the ending. Great Book.

[Robert Collette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the kind of book I usually read but this was an easy read that was also quite entertaining and thankfully not as violent as the dust jacket said.

[Bob Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 1986. For homicide detective Stuart Haydon murder is only the beginning in this intense follow up to A Cold Mind. One of my favorites that year..

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a solid police procedural, pitched somewhere between the expansive, nigh-labyrinthine style of Nelson Demille and the more staccato style favored by Joseph Wambaugh.

Detective Stuart Haydon is on extended leave, living in a well-appointed house with a beautiful woman. He tends a garden like Poirot, and is debating whether or not to return to his badge and gun after a rough incident in which he suffered a mental breakdown of sorts.

Just when the reader is getting ready to pull out their Cop Cliché Bingo card, however, things get interesting. Detective Haydon is lured back onto active duty after a sleaze ball marginally involved in the film industry gets his throat slit while working late night in a development lab. The dead man not only worked for a movie producer, but moonlighted producing stock for a former combat photog who's reputation for getting the best footage took a hit when the content he got in-theater started to be a little too gruesome for even the lurid tabs.

The case takes Haydon through the strata of Houston, from its most impoverished ghetto wards to the lush estates of the key players on the Third Coast. Just as he's forced to trawl the streets for info, he's also forced to revisit the darkest corners of his psyche and its closely-held secrets. It's an old song, sung well enough here and with enough variations on the old themes for me to recommend it. Just to make it official, though: recommended.

[Susan Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of the Stuart Hayden (Houston homicide detective) series. I'm not sure where it fits in the series, but it doesn't matter in this case. A video technician is gruesomely murdered in his lab at a prestigious ad agency. The investigation leads to a strange cast of characters from the scummiest to the most powerful. And it's all really grisly. I really like Lindsey's plots and writing style. Most of his characters are fabulous. However, the extreme angst of Stuart Hayden gets a little old after a while.

[James S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got a few pages in, no idea what was happening. Not a good sign, so I quit reading it.

[Clarkhou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detective Haydon decides to take over the murder investigation of a photographer named Powell. Haydon soon learns that Powell works for the Langer Media hired by Langer to work on something personally for him. He also soon learns that a friend of Powell's named Toy Rick, who is a cameraman and will risk everything to obtain the most violent footage possible. He also learns that The Langer Media Corporation is owned by a rich man named Josef Roeg, who pressures everyone that works for him and will do anything to keep with mouths shut once they become no use for him... What could have possibly got Powell killed? The tapes he obtained? As Haydon investigates deeper, more people are dead..

I picked up this book because I read the book cover that says "Award Winning Author Of Mercy" and I thought that this book should be worth to take a look at...

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery and suspense genres but also promotes violence/inappropriate words in it, because it has some inappropriate contents in it...

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, a decent Lindsey book about Stuart Haydon. That, in itself, is faint praise indeed as I have grown to really dislike this series. This, # 2, however, is a very good murder mystery. Recommended to fictional crime enthusiasts.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lived in Houston in the 1980s and first read this book when it was brand new. It's so riveting and exciting that it was well worth re-reading, even though I clearly remembered the plot. The characters are strongly drawn; the action is disgusting. Not for the squeamish.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Lindsey's books quite a lot. These books mined the psychological thriller genre pretty well, and nearly as good as Thomas Harris did.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really defines Houston, the heat, the rawness, the eye always on the main chance.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A motion picture cameraman is murdered in the darkroom of an ad agency in Houston. Detective Stuart Haydon unwinds the case bit by bit dwelving deeper and deeper into the dark nature of man.