The Old Gray Wolf: A Charlie Moon Mystery Novel by James D. Doss | Western Crime Fiction | Perfect for Mystery Lovers & Book Club Discussions

For James Doss fans this is a rather emotional read because you start with the knowledge that Jim died last year shortly after completing this novel. You also realize that Charlie Moon and his friends, Scott Paris, Sarah Frank, and Aunt Daisy now live in that nether world where Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, Jesse Stone, Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Watson reside, ghosts like Daisy Pereka's frequent visitors, available for consultation but never to resolve the little personality quirks that made each of them so real. However, you do end the book with some sense that at least one thread of the long story of Charlie Moon will be tied up, but I’ll leave that for the reader to discover.The story itself is in keeping with the rest of the series; humorous, deadly, and with enough twists to keep you turning the page way beyond your normal bedtime. It’s also true that as your read you can't help but think that Doss had a premonition of his own death, or at least that is how I reacted when reading his comments on death and what follows it. These passages strike a chord that is at once melancholy and immediate.For readers who aren’t familiar with Doss’s little world centered on the southwestern corner of Colorado, this is the seventeenth volume of a series that takes Charlie from the time he was a young deputy in the Southern Ute Police Department to his inheritance of one of Colorado’s great cattle ranches. At the same time you are introduced to a band of characters who like Charlie are fleshed out and made real as the series develops and Doss hones his writing skills. If you have read Tony Hillerman, another of my favorite authors, you won’t find the strong focus on culture and the tensions that exist between reservation life and the outside world. Doss treats these subjects, but usually in a more relaxed, humorous manner than Hillerman, though there is no doubt that Doss was remarkably knowledgeable about the Ute Nation and its traditions, beliefs, and culture. Basically, however, Doss wrote gripping, page-turning murder mysteries set in the very “American” environment of the southwest, and for mystery lovers they are like chocolate truffles, always delicious, very habit forming, and hard to stop at just one.Thank you James Doss, for over a decade of pure, unadulterated joy and entertainment.