Firehole River Murder: Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Mystery Series (Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Mystery Series)

Firehole River Murder: Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Mystery Series (Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Mystery Series) Customer Review: Western mystery in the Hillerman vein
This murder mystery is in the Hillerman vein, by that I mean the author knows a great deal about a geographical area and a specialty subject area and shares that with the reader while solving the mystery. Tony Hillerman does this with a focus on New Mexico and Native American beliefs, here Raymond Kieft has Yellowstone as the focus and Fly Fishing as the subject matter expertise. I suspect future stories will continue to explore why otherwise reasonable people give up perfectly good careers to spend their time Fly Fishing. As for the murder, it seems to be of a fungible college president (there are a lot running around in this book) but why? And Who? And How? –all classic mystery questions I won’t reveal. I like mysteries that treat the reader as an intelligent person, not spoon feeding everything, and with an emphasis on current detective science, all of which Kieft has put in this Firehole River Murder. It is an easy read, with just enough false leads to make the mystery realistic.
Customer Review: Fun book for YNP fly fishing enthusiasts
This is a first novel by the author. It revolves around a murder of a college president on the Firehole River. A local fly shop owner (who is an ex-college president) is a suspect but also the one who searches out clues and ultimately solves the mystery. Some of the dialogue in the early part of the book seems a bit forced –the murder victim is a particularly unlikeable character but his dialogues seems to over-sell this point as does how other describe him. With that said, the book quickly sweeps up the reader in the mystery. The hero takes up with an assistant superintendent of parks (who also is a love interest). Other interesting characters include a former college professor who is a suspect and a librarian. Other characters like those who work in the fly shop are never fully developed. A bit of academic politics is also thrown into the mix.
The fishing scenes are good and accurate. There are two mistakes (for Yellowstone purists). First, the murder occurs at Ojo Caliente bend on the Firehole. This stretch of river has been closed to vehicles for at least 10 years but in the book, people drive right up to the bridge that crosses the river. Secondly, the author refers to Mammoth as “Mammouth.” In addition, if you really want to quibble, the fisherman in the book use caddis flies and other dries on the Firehole on opening day -while there are some hatches this early, normally opening day is a time for nymphs and soft hackles as the water is normally high and a bit off color and not real conducive to hatches.
I won’t give away the ending but it seems to come quickly. That is, things get wrapped up too easily without any twists, etc. Yet, I enjoyed this book and look forward to more fly fishing mysteries by this author.