THE CAT DANCERS by P T Deutermann
P T Deutermann has had a successful writing career composing military thrillers. These books had a high amount of technology involved and were political and/or military in nature. But now Deutermann takes on a pure mystery, one involving police officers but not politically motivated in any sense. It is called THE CAT DANCERS and it is a thrill ride from start to finish.
THE CAT DANCERS starts with a crime. Two lowlifes rob a store and end up killing a group of people in the aftermath. They are soon caught by the police but a legal technicality gets them off from any charges. Later the two men disappear only to turn up on a video that shows their supposed executions in an electric chair.
Later the judge who released the two men also gets threats on her life. It seems there is a vigilante group of some sort that is trying to take justice into its own hands. Lt. Cam Richter of the Manceford County's Sheriff's Office is at the center of the investigation into all these events.
Eventually Richter is drawn into the North Carolina mountain country where he trails a group known as "cat dancers." This group supposedly tracks the big cats and eventually finds their lairs. Usually they are in a mountain cave. The "cat dancer" gets close enough to the lair to get a picture of the big cat. He takes the picture and thereby earns his membership in some sort of club.
All of this becomes logical in Deutermann's novel. He goes inside the heads of the heroes and the villains and makes their natures sometimes overlap. The mission to gain justice of some sorts is something with which most readers can relate, but the extreme methods and means utilized is not.
This is one of Deutermann's most creative novels yet. He fashions a world where lives are expendable in every sense and death takes no holidays. No one in the story is entirely safe from being removed from the plot in one way or another.
Deutermann now lives in North Carolina and he uses this state as the locale for his story. He has researched the land and knows it well enough to make it support each and every plot twist he creates. The topography and weather in the state become like a character in the plot.
If you have liked Deutermann's novels in the past, this is a chance to take a new look at his talent. The suspense and thrills are still there, only the setting is different.
THE CAT DANCERS is published by St Martin's Press. It contains 341 pages and sells for $24.95.