It was a dark and stormy night. Perfect for reading a good mystery novel, and I had a few on hand that looked promising. The weather seemed a harbinger of winter and I determined to lay in more who-done-its before Utah’s fall/winter season kicks in hard, assuming it does this year.

I had plenty of Dame Agathas (Christie was so very prolific and great with tricky plots. One could read her stuff over and over again.) And I owned several books by the tremendous Dashiell Hammett, a former detective considered by many (including Gertrude Stein, Andre Gide, and Raymond Chandler) to be one of the most admirable writers of the twentieth century. (High praise indeed!) Still, it was great to have something new to settle in with while the rain poured down.

Death on the Rig is by T.S. Jensen, a Mapleton, Utah, man who describes it as the first of his Uintah Basin Mysteries. It features Sheriff Milt Kingston investigating a roughneck’s death on an oil rig in northeastern Utah (where the author grew up).

The death looks “more staged than accidental” and Milt finds himself caught between the law and “the tight-knit community where the Church, the rigs, and the courthouse all share the same potluck tables.”

Every clue, the author writes in a letter accompanying the book, “points higher than a roughneck with a temper, and solving the case means confronting people Milt has known his whole life.”

The sheriff has a competent woman (Yay!) working alongside him. The colloquialisms are not overdone, the funny lines are indeed funny, and the violence is present but quite bearable. A clever and most enjoyable mystery.

Barbara’s Desert Cafe by Kevin T. Jones has lots going for it from Page One and reviewers have compared it favorably with Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. I, too, found it laugh-out-loud funny, but also enchanting for other good reasons.

The book is indexed with terrific recipes at the end of each chapter (LGBT Sandwiches, Brigham Tea, Dill Pickle Slaw, Cast Iron Miracle Skillet Cornbread . . .) and the inside illustrations in black and white are by the uber-talented, award-winning Salt Lake City artist Carel P. Brest van Kempen. (Unusually, no alligators, snakes or other wild life to be found; just people.) There is also a richly colored cover illustration by Brad Wolverton.

The author was the state archaeologist of Utah for 17 years (and played mandolin and guitar and singing in the award-winning band The Lab Dogs and the rock band Hammerstone for more than 20 years), a career that anchors the novel.The unusual and intriguing mystery centers not on a murder but on Native artworks that are being cut off canyon walls and looted. You are invited to join Ralph, Kenny, and Iris at Barbara’s cafe’ for piñon pie and coffee as they plot to find the thieves, and later to wander with the trio through Lost Valley as they search for the stolen art and those who took it. It is a highly-recommended journey.

Ann Poore

A graduate of the University of Utah, Ann Poore is a freelance writer and editor who spent most of her career at The Salt Lake Tribune. She was the 2018 recipient of the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Artist Award in the Literary Arts.