Book: Blown Away Under the Big Sky

The “Big Sky PI” is back in John Holt’s second installment of his Ed Bouchee murder-mystery series. Blown Away Under the Big Sky (New Pulp Press, $15) takes the reader on a rollicking jaunt through life in small-town Montana, complete with fly fishing, epic landscapes, and a colorful cast of characters. Loose-lipped Bouchee is a Montana version of Travis McGee, John D. MacDonald’s famous private eye—but instead of living on a sailboat and beating up bad guys, Bouchee resides in a fictional Livingston and catches trout on the Yellowstone. He drinks just as hard and solves cases just as well. And he’s just as much of a smartass, which makes for some fun scenes with the more uptight folks Bouchee finds himself in invariable, unavoidable contact. Like a washboarded Montana back road, the ride’s a bit rough—New Pulp clearly needs a new editor—but the scenery more than compensates. And the brazenly autobiographical bent will make you want to seek out Holt at the Owl or the Stockman and share a few fingers of firewater, plumbing the salty wordsmith for more tales of life under the Big Sky.