The  bushwhack killing of a deputy sheriff in Lincoln County and the brutal murder of the deputy’s wife in Santa Fe, bring Police Chief  Kevin Kerney and his Mescalero Apache son, Sergeant Clayton Istee, back together in a double homicide investigation that is soon linked to a major drug trafficking scheme and the cold blooded slaughter of  two women in Albuquerque.  With few clues, no known motives,  and no suspects, the investigation turns into a search for the son of the slain officer, eighteen year-old Brian Riley, who left Santa Fe  before his father’s death under suspicious circumstances.

Due to retire at the end of the month, Kevin Kerney isn’t about to let the murder of a police officer’s wife go unsolved on his watch, especially since the dead woman was the sister of a dear friend, and crime scene facts strongly suggest that the killer may have also ambushed the deputy sheriff. Kerney assumes command of the combined investigation and calls upon Clayton to find Brian Riley, discover what triggered the murders, and give him the ammunition he needs to bring a multiple murderer to justice.

DEATH SONG is McGarrity in full stride and at his best.

Written in the terse staccato of law enforcement, Death Song sets a police procedural with plenty of action in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and northern New Mexico. The double homicide of a LincolnCounty sheriff's deputy and his wife bring together Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his Mescalero Apache son, a Lincoln County officer. Their investigation uncovers a major international drug ring, but the killers - and the real reason for the crimes - elude police as more murders ensue. 

Ultimately, the motive seems weak, but Death Song is still worth the ride.

Final word: McGarrity, a retired Santa Fe County deputy sheriff, has long been a bright star among Western mystery writers, and his latest will please longtime fans as well as newcomers.

Jane Dickinson, Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), February 1, 2008 Friday Final Edition

“McGARRITY GETS BETTER AND BETTER ~ How good it is to follow a detective created by a man who has been there and done that.”—Tony Hillerman

McGarrity brings back some of the noirish edge that distinguished Kerney’s earlier outings. A solid effort from a reliable pro.”— Booklist

Gripping and well-crafted…top-notch entertainment.”— BookLoons.com

“A terrific police procedural with double the fun as father and son work together to solve the homicides.”— Midwest Book Review

“If you have never read Michael McGarrity, then do yourself a favor.”— Harlan Coben

“McGarrity knows the ropes.”—The Dallas Morning News

“McGarrity may be the best writer in the genre working today.”— Tulsa World

“A robust series.”—The New York Times

Whodunit's at Home in N.M. Crime Novels
By Review by David Steinberg ~ Sunday, December 30, 2007
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"Death Song" by Michael McGarrity --  Dutton, $24.95, 293 pp.
    Michael McGarrity's well-received crime fiction relies on the melding of police procedures with a strong sense of place and sketched-out characters who resurface in his novels.
    There are few gunfights and no superheroes to the rescue. They are whodunits, New Mexico style.
    As with McGarrity's previous 10 mysteries with protagonist Kevin Kerney, "Death Song" lopes along at a steady, sure-footed pace.
    The novel introduces Tim Riley, a new deputy sheriff in Lincoln County who had recently moved down from Santa Fe. Just as the reader gets to know and like Riley, he is shot and killed.
    In the hours before his death, Riley had been trying to reach his wife, Denise, in Santa Fe.
    She is initially believed missing; then police find her body and seek her killer.
    The action occurs in the last month before Kerney is leaving his post as Santa Fe police chief. He's thrust into the investigation of Denise's death; she was the youngest sister of a friend who had retired from the police department.
    After a while, the reader becomes so familiar with some of the returning characters, especially Kerney, that you eagerly await updates on his personal life— his relationships with his career Army wife, his precocious young son, his half-Apache older son, Clayton Istee, who happens to be a Lincoln County deputy helping in the investigation of the double murder.
    The bulk of the investigating takes place in the city and county of Santa Fe, in particular in Cañoncito, about eight miles east of the city just off I-25.
    In search of Riley's teenage son, Brian, from a previous marriage, police look for him in Albuquerque's Downtown and the University area; there's a tangential marijuana bust in Four Hills.
    Police jurisdictional issues, between and within agencies, become a subtext.
    McGarrity enjoys using police lingo and small talk to make his characters real.
    At times, though, that slows a scene or seems stilted, as when Riley and the sheriff "dismounted their vehicles and moved quickly in (Istee's) direction." The vehicles were indeed cars, not horses.
    Or with this question, " 'Are you ready for a cup of coffee?' Bolt asked.
    " 'Affirmative,' Tim replied."
    These cops talk on the radio in numbers, a universal police language, as in "ten-four ..."
    When Santa Fe detective sergeant Ramona Pino heads to the county law enforcement complex, McGarrity interjects a page or so of description and history of a section of N.M. 14.
    Part of it may be familiar to some New Mexicans.
    In an aside the author explains why the state prison is on this state road near Cerrillos: "When the Legislature had given Santa Fe first choice of either being home to the territorial prison or the college, the city officials had picked the pokey. At the time it supposedly had been a no-brainer; the prison would bring many more jobs to the community than the college ever could."
    McGarrity may live in Santa Fe but he makes readers feels at home all over New Mexico.
    David Steinberg is the Books editor and a Journal Arts writer