Bohannon's Women - Softcover

Is it possible to hit one out of the park gently, gracefully, with almost tender, devoted finesse? If stories were baseballs, Hansen would do it every time. With spare, effortless strokes, he limns his characters, allowing them room to catch and hold our full attention with a small, understated gesture, a look, a murmured non sequitur. And what characters: horse rancher Hack Bohannon, until 15 years ago a deputy of Phil Gerard; and Gerard, now a police lieutenant in southern California's canyon country, redolent of sage and eucalyptus. Although Bohannon is stabling a dozen horses, usually without benefit of reliable stable hands, he has kept his private investigator's license and often finds himself neck-deep in cases, sometimes working for the district attorney, sometimes for the public defender, and sometimes for private individuals. And hooray for him! He eats ham and eggs and buttered toast for breakfast, drinks high-octane black coffee and whiskey, and smokes so much that he wheezes up inclines that 80-year-old medical examiner Belle Hesseltine scales breathing easy. This appealing central figure and Hansen's sure, deft hand with both exterior and interior landscapes leave readers wishing for more. So dig up Bohannon's Country (1993) for them. Whitney Scott
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