No Way to Die: A Cal Claxton Oregon Mystery

In Easley’s satisfying seventh mystery featuring genial Oregon attorney Cal Claxton (after 2018’s Moving Targets), Cal and his daughter, Claire, who has a postdoctoral position at Harvard in environmental science, are fishing in Oregon’s Millicoma River when they discover the body of fellow fisherman Howard Coleman, his hands and feet bound with steel cable. Two days later, Cal meets Aurora “Rori” Dennison, the owner of the Coffee and Subversion bookshop, who describes the dead man as “a jailhouse snitch.” Coleman’s false testimony helped convict her 16-year-old grandson, Kevin Sanders, of the murder of nasty Sonny Jensen four years earlier and send the boy to prison for life without parole. Soon after Cal agrees to reexamine Kevin’s case, he and Claire are risking their lives in pursuit of the killers of both Jensen and Coleman. Easley creates authentic characters and relationships, and his eloquent descriptions of the Oregon wilderness are sublime. This well-plotted, character-driven series just keeps getting better. (Oct.)