Wolf Point

Andy Larson mysteries #2

by Mike Thompson, Reed McColm (Illustrator)

Andy Larson, wanting to get away from the bootleg crime and corruption of prohibition in North Dakota, moves to Wolf Point, Montana, to take on an easy job as a deputy sheriff. Immediately after his arrival the sheriff and police chief are gunned down and Andy, as the new sheriff, finds this area is a hot bed of big-city mobsters, crooked cops, and lethal double crosses. Andy is not above having a drink or two himself as he devises a sting operation to pit gangs against each other, encounters a WWI flying ace bringing in bootleg booze under the wings of his plane and battles relentlessly to try to stem the flow of liquor coming through from Canada. This is not the easy job Andy Larson was expecting.

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Steven Houchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author writes a good story that keeps interest throughout. Main character is Sheriff Andy Larson, who tries to head off booze-running in his county during Prohibition. But, the author uses way too much italics in the narrative, leading to distraction. Far too much internal dialog by the characters where it is not necessary, and almost seems silly (things such as, I'm going to head up the street. Joe then headed up the street.) Also, point of view switches all over the place, where we are in the heads of different characters in the same scene. Sheriff Larson always seems to outwit the bad guys, but doesn't really suffer setbacks where his plans go awry (i.e. suffer reversals).

[Martial Trevett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story about bootleggers in the northern central U.S.

[AmsD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non-stop action!

[Reggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant surprise. As I started reading I thought it would be a one or two star. It's not my genre at all. It takes place during the Prohibition, so there's lots of gunfights, smoking, cussing, and drinking whiskey. But Mike Thompson is a great writer, and the book is non-stop action. Several times I thought I was watching Gunsmoke while reading Louis L'Amour.

I need to explain how I came to read this. I found it in the mystery section at the library. Because it was titled Wolf Point, I took it down. There is a small town in Montana with the same name, and by reading the fly leaf, I was able to determine that indeed is the setting for the story. In reading the author's bio, I found out Mike Thompson lives in San Angelo, my current home town. So naturally I had to read it.

My initial disappointment was that the plot line could not possibly have happened in real Wolf Point, MT in 1923. Seriously. Wolf Point is an Indian town, county seat in middle of a reservation. To my knowledge, Wolf Point was never a stop-over point for bootlegging. Furthermore, there were no references to the tribal leaders. Only cowboys, Mafia members, and Norwegians were portrayed as characters in a town that had a dozen members of the police force, and about that many deputy sheriffs. Um.....I don't know exactly when Indian reservations were established in Montana, or what the population was back then, but currently the population of Wolf Point, MT is 2600. If they have two county sheriffs on its entire law enforcement roster, that would be about right.

Once I got into the story line though, I had to remind myself that this is a work of fiction. The author may have just chosen a spot on the map, which is perfectly acceptable. He obviously took literary license with the setting in telling his story. So, unless you are as familiar as I am with real life Wolf Point, you won't have to be bothered by those minor details, and you should enjoy this bang, bang shoot-em-up western mystery.