Ken Hodgson, Season of the Burning Souls

Season of the Burning Souls

Ken Hodgson

Five Star, October 2006, $25.95

ISBN: 1594144826

In 1943 Silver City, New Mexico, mentally deranged Phil the Prophet is having a drink at a bar when he erupts into flames. Sheriff Sam Sinrod and Grant County Coroner Dr. Bryce Whitlock are stunned, especially when the town's undertaker insists cremation takes some time, not a couple of minutes. Not long afterward a second such incident occurs, involving arson investigator Roan Walker at Madame Miller's Pussy Palace. Fire Chief Bates says he never seen anything like this before. When a banjo player in a travelling show is next, everyone thinks of Dickens' Bleak House.

The state sends two law enforcement officials, Diego and Black, whose jobs are to kill anyone who they deem causing problems for the governor and his associates. Their first target is strange Silver City Times Editor Henry Fossett, who blames the fiery deaths on a secret Nazi weapon. As more die from spontaneous combustion, and weird neighbors Tasker and Wesley pilfer the wrong thing, Sinrod and Whitlock struggle to stop a panic, keep the two outsiders under control, and go out on dates while trying to solve the mystery.

This is a strange police investigative tale that brings to life law enforcement in New Mexico during WWII. The fast-paced storyline grips readers who wonder about the sudden outburst of spontaneous combustion, that even includes a rodent, but the tension is also somewhat abated with comic relief by characters like Tasker and Wesley. Historical mystery fans will enjoy this fun 1940's tale, as Sam and Bryce struggle with solving the bleak remains from a rash of fiery deaths.