Bohannon's Country: 2mystery Stories

In five new short stories, Hansen is in top form, delighting readers with surprising, often risk-taking, fiction. This will be no surprise to followers of the acclaimed Dave Brandstetter series (Brandstetter was one of the first gay PI heroes), which ended last year with A Country of Old Men . Three of the stories feature Hack Bohannon, a rugged horse rancher on the California coast who sleuths on the side. In ``The Olcott Nostrum'' Hack and colorful cohorts help an old woman unearth the mystery of her inherited farmhouse and find the formula for the title's legendary cure-all. Throughout, Bohannon's wife Linda drifts in and out of a catatonic state brought on by a kidnapping and rape, although her plight is apparently forgotten in the second story, ``The Owl in the Oak.'' The pick of the fivesome is ``Molly's Aim.'' Molly, a motel chambermaid in her small hometown, waits for years for the return of Carl, the high school hero she loved, who cheated her of her share of the loot from a murder/robbery. Also arriving in town is Hugh; he loved Carl too and was also betrayed. The stars collide in this taut masterpiece of short crime fiction. (June)