Many authors have tried to duplicate the feel of the old Gold Medal classics, but usually are slightly off the mark. Not James Reasoner; his new one from Point Blank Press – DUST DEVILS – hits the bull’s-eye from page one. What starts out innocently enough takes some jaw-dropping turns in a taut 150 pages.

A young man named Toby McCoy is looking for work on a isolated farm run by lonely woman Grace Halligan. As Toby works really hard on the farm, life goes by uneventfully … until he and Grace get a lot closer than expected. And then comes the first jaw-dropper of the book. I won’t give away the shocks, but the novel takes a path you can’t predict.

Let’s just say Grace is not really who she says she is. Furthermore, people from her past have a score to settle with her. She figures it’s time to clear the air with her former friends, but the only way that’s possible is to find the man who was really the cause of her problems.

To say anymore would totally ruin the book for readers. Reasoner has pretty much taken a strong-willed woman and cast her in the Parker model of the Richard Stark novels, with the Toby character being an eager beaver of a learner and not as innocent as he seems.

For that, there is much rejoicing in the land, because Reasoner pulls no punches in this novel, chock full of some of the lowest type of criminals out there: men who probably would sell their own mothers to get their hands on any cash owed to them. DUST DEVILS flows so smoothly, with the pace never letting up. Even though you might figure what the final payoff is, you’re not going to regret delving into a crime novel like this one.

Let’s be honest: It’s all about the ride and how windy the road is. I hope Reasoner keeps up with his return to the noir world, because he’s been sorely missed. –Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.