Easy Death -- Daniel Boyd

I've known "Daniel Boyd" for a while under another name.  In fact, he even comments on this blog from time to time.   This is his second novel, and I'm happy to report that it's a good one.  It's from Hard Case Crime, so what else would you expect?

The setting, December, 1951, harks back to the beginning of the grand old Gold Medal days, and the subject matter is something that might have appealed to Lionel White a bit later in the decade: an armored car robbery.  As in most stories of armored car robberies, even the most carefully planned ones, things go wrong.  It's not necessarily the fault of the robbers, who turn out to be fairly likable guys.  It's the weather.  The big snowstorm becomes almost like another character in the book because Boyd does the weather so well.  

There are complications aplenty aside from the weather, and Boyd guides the reader smoothly through all of them.  He led me down the garden path once, but maybe he won't fool you.  Ms. Nixon, a park ranger who's related to a more famous Nixon, isn't fooled.

If found myself wanting things to work out for most of the characters, except for one particularly despicable one, and I suspect you will, too.  It's the Christmas season, after all.   

Knowing the author, I'd have been disappointed if there hadn't been a Hamlet allusion or two.  There's also some social commentary, some humor, and plenty of action.  Far be it from me to reveal more.  Read the book, and you may find yourself thinking of what a fine movie it would make or how it might become a Christmas perennial.  It's good stuff.