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The Burning of Rachel Hayes, Doug Allyn, Five Star, $25.95.

The take no prisoners style of Doug Allyn has returned in a tight, waste no words novel set in Michigan and drawing heavily on Michigan history and geography. It's far from dull though - I don't think Allyn is capable of being dull - the geography lesson is nicely incorporated when the central character, Dr. David Westbrook, hears a cry and upon investigating finds an hysterical mother whose child has fallen down a long neglected and abandoned well. The resulting rescue sequence is practically a primer on how to write action - the overlay of emotion is almost a bonus. Think Nevada Barr on steroids. Unlike Barr, who is sometimes plot challenged, Allyn has no such difficulty - the plot, which sounds complex when describing it, is in fact delivered in a straightforward make-it-look-easy style which nicely meshes all the threads together by the end of the book.

Dr. Westbrook is a veterinarian recently released from prison. He's rehabbing a rented barn to use as a clinic, and the trials he encounters along the way - beginning with the boy down the well - are immense, but at the same time believable. The book begins with the story of farmer Rachel Hayes, whose farm burned down along with her, her daughter, and her dog in 1871, thanks to the slovenly practices of the lumber companies clearing the woods for timber. Her spirit does not rest quietly; it in fact haunts the book, but this is done in such a low key way that it never seems like a ghost story so much as the story of a woman who just can't rest until she is avenged. The barn Westbrook is rehabbing is, of course Rachel's, a discovery he doesn't make until late in the novel; it's the only time we as readers are one up on him.

The plot centers around the doubt authorities have when dealing with David - he is a recently released prisoner - and his growing ties to the community in the form of both his landlady and a local newspaper reporter who is writing about Rachel. The landlady, older, wealthy, and engaged, is the object of David's affections; the reporter functions as a sidekick. The landlady is responsible for some of the loveliest scenes in the book - when David loses his construction materials to a fire, she covers the new ones provided he takes in some rescue greyhounds. David learns how to live with the ill behaved pack and how to run with them on the land around his property; describing it here doesn't do it proper justice. This is some of the nicest writing, about animals or otherwise, I've encountered this year, and thanks to some plot turns, also some of the most heartbreaking.

Don't read this book if you are expecting Allyn's plot to shield you from any kind of violence that, based on well built characters on his part, becomes all the more disturbing. This is not the work of a sentimental author - regardless of the fact that the book made me cry - but rather the work of a writer who can tell an interesting and compelling story in a very straightforward manner. If you think that's easy, you haven't read enough books. Michigan setting or no, this is a wonderful book that shouldn't be missed by any mystery reader who enjoys being entertained by a master storyteller.

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