I was prepared to dislike Mark Lindquist’s THE KING OF METHLEHEM for three reasons: 1) It’s all about the meth drug culture, 2) it’s set in the Pacific Northwest and I’m picky about details when it comes to where I live, and 3) it’s written entirely in the present tense, which seems unnecessarily distracting.

But then, after just a few pages, the entire book opened up and I instantly succumbed to Lindquist’s spare – and funny – writing style. Lindquist is actually the chief of a drug unit trial team in Tacoma, Wash., and one of his heroes in the book, Mike Lawson, shares this same duty. There’s another protagonist, Detective Wyatt James, and it is this individual who is on an obsessive quest to shut down Howard, otherwise known as The King of Methlehem.

Lindquist is adept at getting inside the heads of his characters, and they’re all quite distinct. Lawson’s a serene loner in a high-stress job, James is a self-destructive fanatic trying not to screw up the good things in his life while futilely chasing down the devil, and Howard is a tweeker. He’s the normal paranoid, scabby, loser meth addict with delusions of grandeur.

The author mixes his intimate knowledge of his characters’ motivations and styles, with a precise evocation of locale and a real understanding from experience of the meth culture. This makes every sentence resound with the tone of truth and reality. And yes, readers, some of the crazy history of Tacoma and the state of Washington that Lindquist discusses is true. Tacoma really did have a police chief that killed his wife, then committed suicide. The state really did have a Supreme Court that issued a decision that allowed 300 convicted murderers to walk free.

The elements that Lindquist does so well, the understanding of character and understanding of place make this book an absolute must-read. Even though meth culture is a despairing hellhole of a life, there is also a lot of wit, humor and celebration in this book. It’s an outstanding effort, and makes me want to read his other novels as well. Highly recommended. –Mark Rose

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