Review by Mack Hassler
“Sheriff George looked at Ashley and Franklin, ‘To begin with, Evangeline’s real father called me almost two months ago to ask me to find Evangeline.’” p. 59
Both the great New England poet Longfellow and the TV series Longmire, a crime drama based on the Walt Longmire Mysteries by Craig Johnson are evoked in this 5th novel Evangeline Where Are You? in the Sheriff George Kaughmann Series by Audrey J. Fick. She identifies herself with Les Cheneaux Island Region. This is the archipelago of small islands and channels in Mackinaw County thirty minutes east of St. Ignace. My wife loved the Sheriff Walt Longmire character in the TV series that ran until the Fall of 2017. She would have loved, also I think, the Sheriff George character who sets out here to find a missing step-daughter in this new story set in the snow-covered trails and fields at the far edge of the UP. My wife and I had step-sons and step-daughters and know just how complicated family emotions can become in blended families.
Further, the winter setting in the jumble of islands and channels in Les Cheneaux are perfect both for predation and for tracking. The jurisdiction for both Sheriffs is that they deal mostly with Capital crimes since there are Reservations with Tribal Police forces that handle most of the daily police work. In both stories, there aeem to be an abundance of Capital crimes. The first Sheriff George story, which takes place a decade prior to this 5th volume by Fick, contains a foul murder of George’s best friend, the Native American named Two Shoes, found lying on the winter ice of the archipelago. Also, the wife of Sheriff Walt Longmire at the opening of the TV stories has been murdered; and that crime haunts the entire series.
So in both jurisdictions, there is plenty of work with Capital crimes for both Sherriff George and for Sherriff Walt, who is near an Indian Reservation in Wyoming. For some reason, Fick in her srorytelling prefers to have the locals refer to her hero as “Sherriff George.” I have looked at a large print edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in my retirement home (the multi-volume OED has a tiny font—I work now with a group of neighbors who have failing vision) and I see no alternative spelling for the word “Sheriff.” In any case, the Sherriff Stories that Fick tells so well are filled with sturdy, rugged and very sexy female deputies and spouses. Part of the appeal for both the readers and the viewers is that both heroes lead full and active emotional lives as they solve capital crimes. Their Native American friends and partners are just as “rounded” and wholesome in their love lives as in their skill at solving crimes.
In this fifth Sherriff George tale, Fick is just as skillful at unraveling human relations and solving brutal murder. In the old TV series, as I recall, Walt Longmire is both accused and then exonerated of murdering his wife. He retires and his vigorous daughter Cady decides to run for Sheriff in the jurisdiction. I suspect that Audrey Fick has more adventures for Sherriff George in the wonderful and magical jurisdiction east of St. Ignace. The TV producers are “pros” at entertainment. I think A. Jay is becoming more and more skillful in her storytelling about a harsh and predatory world that needs good detective work. Her work is very reassuring for people of all ages to read. As our mentor in this reviewing business, Victor R. Volkman, says in a review of an earlier Fick “Sherriff George” mystery Revealation at the Snows (2020) this author tones down some of the brutal details of rape and murder. I do not think that that effect hurts her work at all.
Evangeline, Where are You? [Sheriff George Series #5], by A. Jay (Covenant Books, Murrells Inlet, SC 29576, 2024), 162 pages, pbk, $15.95.
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