It's winter around Lake Michigan when Lynne Boyd a television reporter is shot. Why would anyone have a reason to do so is revealed as we learn more about Sheriff Ray Elkins's department. ( )

Good entry in a very entertaining series. Excellent and interesting peripheral as well as main characters. Sheriff does get damaged frequently but rebounds well. Well managed locale development of the rural but quite scenic home territory for the series. ( )

Just a very easy and entertaining read -- as are all of Stander's Ray Elkins mysteries. ( )

DEER SEASON is the fourth Ray Elkins mystery-thriller by Aaron Stander that I have read. (I haven't read them quite in order.) Elkins is a very unique sort in the crowded pantheon of contemporary crime solvers. Every time I've read one of Stander's books about this sheriff of fictional Cedar County (obviously set in the Traverse City area of northwest Michigan), I am reminded of VP Spiro Agnew's infamous comment about "effete intellectual snobs." Except Elkins is certainly not effete. The snob part is perhaps debatable, but the intellectual tag is spot on. Because in Elkins we meet a Shakespeare-quoting law enforcement officer who is university educated and intelligent in ways not usually associated with back country sheriffs. The methods by which he approaches crime-solving are meticulous and multi-layered, as evidenced in the whiteboard notes he keeps and studies in his office, brainstorming and discussing the case with his second-in-command, Detective Sue Lawrence.

While Elkins is the consumate professional in his detecting, his personal life remains more mysterious if not nearly bloodless. He does seem to have a romantic interest in lovely local school administrator, Sarah James, although the passion is all off-page, as in "embrace and fade to black." And even Detective Lawrence appears to have some romantic designs on her boss, as evidenced by a wine-fueled deep kiss following a Thanksgiving dinner party. They seem to successfully restore their strictly professional relationship in a rather embarrassed manner the next day though, darn it.

The plot here is pretty standard - a murder with several suspects and a gradual untangling of leads and clues, all of which unfold at a measured and careful pace, interspersed with descriptions of what Elkins is reading (the New Yorker mostly), cooking and eating. And his culinary tastes are certainly unique, particularly for northern Michigan (that possible 'snob' thing). For example, his contributions to a Thanksgiving feast shared with several friends are "tenderloins of venison in a butter and thimbleberry sauce and steelhead filets poached in white wine." I mean, okay as far as deer meat and trout and maybe even the thimbleberries - all local fare - but it's the sauces and poaching and white wine that seem foreign to the venue. In fact, for the same meal, the celebrants share several wines - a Chateauneuf du Pape, a Shiraz, a Pinot Noir, and even a Dom Perignon, each matched to the appropriate course. Probably most of the local residents would consider all these wines a bit on the snooty side, in a region where beer and bourbon are usually the lubricants of choice. But hey, all that wine certainly got Sue Lawrence loosened up; enough to put the moves on her boss after everyone else had left.

Small stuff, I know. The truth is, I like Ray Elkins, even though I know he's a lot smarter than I am. I don't really know squat from fine food and wines, but I do read the New Yorker. The Elkins character often brings to mind Sheriff Jesse Stone of the Robert B. Parker novels (and TV films starring Tom Selleck). It would indeed be fun to cast a film made from a Ray Elkins novel or a combination of a few of them. And I believe they would make excellent film fare, with their various red herrings and gradually rising action to a bang-up climax, followed by a rational Perry Mason-like explanation of things - exactly why who did what to whom.

It's easy to see why Aaron Stander has such a faithful following of fans in northern Michigan, particularly among the summer tourists, who are always on the lookout for a good "beach read." But Sheriff Ray Elkins is a multi-layered and memorable character that has a tendency to stick with you long after you've shaken the sand from your sandals. I'm looking forward to the next installment. ( )