Broken Heartland
J.M. Hayes
Poisoned Pen Press, Nov 2007, $24.95
ISBN:9781590584521

In Benteen County, Kansas, the election for sheriff is a hot race between the incumbent Sheriff English AKA “Englishman” and braggart Lieutenant Greer, who has the support of the radical right in a state in which the political spectrum runs from the far right to the extreme far right.

However, Englishman has other problems to deal with when his only Deputy Wynn is severely hurt during a high speed chase car accident involving a station wagon and a school bus. With Wynn in a Wichita hospital’s intensive care unit Englishman claims he is to busy to attend a Buffalo Springs Chamber of Commerce pancake breakfast or debate his opponent. To himself, the sheriff expects to lose his job for legally upholding the law. Meanwhile, his half-brother born again Cheyenne Mad Dog has a feeling that Englishman needs him so accompanied by his wolf Hailey rushes from the Black Hills to Kansas. Englishman's two college student daughters feel the same way as their uncle and rush home to help their dad too. All three are right as angry Buffalo Springs High School student Chucky Williams threatens to make Columbine and Virginia Tech look minor while an army of organ harvesters abduct Mad Dog to reap his inner parts.

When you mix a Mad Dog with an Englishman you can expect a zany cocker tale that will elate those fans who appreciate the offbeat in their police procedurals. Even Dorothy would not want to go home to this mess as fans observe a day in the life of a county sheriff on the Plains when even he questions whether he would be better off losing the election. Although life is as out of control here in the BROKEN HEARTLAND as it was in PRAIRIE GOTHIC, and MAD DOG AND ENGLISHMAN, J.M. Hayes provides a zany law enforcement tale.
Harriet Klausner