The first year that I really started to make fairly detailed notes regarding the books that I read that year was 1988. Recording the exact dates that I read the books didn’t start until March for January and February the books are only listed by the months. The first book of the year was Richard Hoyt’s Fish Story. Fish Story is the fourth book in the John Denson series from Hoyt. From Goodreads…..
John Dennison, Seattle private eye teams up with his darts-throwing Cowlitz Indian buddy, Willie Prettybird, to investigate a Cowlitz claim to Native American salmon fishing rights. A judge is murdered and dismembered parts s how up in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.
Denson is an ex-intelligence agent, who now lives in Seattle and works as a private eye. While Fish Story is the first of Hoyt’s Denson’s books that are on my Goodreads shelves I don’t believe that it is the first of the books that I read, the first I believe was book 2 – Siskiyou. As I think back on Hoyt’s books they were for the most part short quick reads with likable quirky characters, I remember now that I liked the character of Willie Prettybird!
Prior to Fish Story I had also read Trotsky’s Run, which was the first book in Hoyt’s James Burlane series. It appears that there was a six-year gap between Fish Story and the next Denson mystery Who? and it seems that I lost track of Denson, until 1996 when I read book number 7 in the series Snake Eyes. After Snakes Eyes there was an 8 year gap until 2003’s The Weatherman’s Daughter which I read and enjoyed!
In visiting Hoyt’s website I see that Hoyt has a new book Crow’s Mind featuring a new Private Investigator Jake Hipp. At his website., Hoyt writes this about his new creation…..
….I shrugged at the odds and moved on from my much-admired detective John Denson to create a private investigator truly for our times and for readers tired of reading formula mysteries. No world-weary grimacing bead of sweat narrates this story. Pothead Jake Hipp lives green. His American Indian partner, Willow Blackwing thinks she is a shape-changing trickster Raven. (Maybe she is).
You can read more about Crow’s Mind and Richard Hoyt at his website and at Amazon
Here’s some press about Hoyt’s writing….
“Hoyt has a fresh, invigorating style that grabs the reader immediately. He is a master.”-The New York Times
“Hoyt is an adroit and zestful writer.”-Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Hoyt is a delight to discover and a treat to read.”-Library Journal
So check out Hoyt’s novels featuring James Burlane, John Denson, and Jake Hipp and others!! As for me, I have gaps to fill in, in both series and a new series to start!!!
