Matters of Doubt: A Cal Claxton Oregon Mystery

Easley’s unremarkable debut introduces Cal Claxton, a former L.A. prosecutor who has moved to Oregon wine country following his wife’s death and is now content to handle small-time cases. But when a tattooed Portland street kid, Danny “Picasso” Baxter, who looks about 20, asks Cal to help solve his mother’s murder, Cal reluctantly agrees to do so. Picasso tells Cal that his mother, Nicole, disappeared mysteriously eight years earlier and that her skeletal remains were recently found in the Deschutes River. Picasso is sure the killer is Mitch Conyers, a sleazy Portland businessman who was once his mother’s boyfriend. Cal digs into Nicole’s life and work—she was a reporter for The Oregonian—and finds unsettling connections to all manner of deceitful dealings involving some of Portland’s most notable citizens. Easley brings alive the world of street kids and the alternative social groups they form, but the mystery, such as it is, lacks punch. (Sept.)