In James Sallis' previous novel, "Cypress Grove," the title referred to the small Tennessee backwater town, not far from Memphis, in which John Turner, man with a taste for solitude, settled in to escape a disparate and troubled past that included stints as a cop, a psychotherapist and a convict. It's the former experience that made him attractive to sheriff Don Lee as a deputy.

Returning from a midnight run to deliver a prisoner, famished deputy Turner pulls into a parking slot at city hall and finds Don Lee in his office, a "guest" in one of the holding cells, and a story about a speeding motorist who wouldn't just accept a ticket and continue on his way. All of which may be slightly unusual but it's the additional details that make it something more than a simple mystery.

When Turner and Lee inspect speeder Judd Kurtz's red hot Mustang classic, and get past the smell of patchouli aftershave and sweat, they find a nylon sports bag in the trunk. In it is two hundred thousand dollars and change. Not a bad story to share with friends and interested parties, the most important of which to Turner is Val Bjorn, a public defender who is having the most positive influence on Turner's comeback life.

Turns out, however, that Kurtz's got some friends and, following his one phone call and Turner's futile attempt at getting him to explain things, the friends pay a visit. Next morning, Turner finds the aftermath: secretary June in a pool of blood clutching an unfired .22 and Don Lee lying on the floor near the holding cells. Kurtz's cell is very empty.

Tracing his missing guest to Memphis, Turner pays a visit of his own and, with the assistance of an old colleague from his cop days serving with the Memphis Police, is led to the local mob where Kurtz, the nephew of a particular badass, is likely hiding out. Turner demonstrates his fearlessness and physical superiority against the mob muscle, which may earn him some temporary respect from the bosses, but also a string of hit men bent on expressing their contractor's dissatisfaction with a stubborn lawman.

Sallis does his job with a spare narrative that contains all the required elements of an adventure with an engaging central figure. Dealing with emotional pain and disappointment on the personal side while targetting his hero with sharpshooting killers on the business end, Sallis keeps the criminal aspects of the plot almost too simple and the personal aspects on the edge of a rocky road. Having had a taste of his sense of justice and an ending that makes one wonder, we may well look forward to further adventures to tell us more about Sallis' grand scheme.