-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Delia Chavez Mystery #1
by J. S. James
An explosive debut mystery for readers of Christine Carbo and Paul Doiron featuring a newly minted deputy thrust into the cutthroat world of hunting.
This waterfowl season, the hunters become the hunted.
Newly promoted sheriff's deputy Delia Chavez has worked hard to get where she is. Without any family to speak of, law enforcement is all she has. But just a few days into her new job, Delia finds the body of a hunter washed up on the bank of the Willamette River missing his trigger finger. Soon, more bodies are found--all hunters without their trigger fingers. Waterfowl season often means clashes between hunters and animal rights activists, but could someone be killing to make a statement? Petrified, but invigorated by the opportunity, Delia dives head first into the case. Soon, she catches a whiff of something foul and it's not the dead bodies--man or bird.
What starts off looking like a simple case of a ruthless vigilante quickly devolves into something much more complex. Facing evasive killers who stop at nothing to conceal their crimes, Delia must bring the criminals to justice because everyone knows, if you're not the predator, you're prey.
"The action builds to an impressively explosive climax. Mystery fans will look forward to seeing more of this worthy heroine." - Publishers Weekly
"James' generously plotted debut, like his heroine, has a lot going on." - Kirkus Reviews
"Evocative and cleverly-plotted, J.S. James' River Run delivers a cast of complex characters in which even the most minor ones come fully alive...Written in confident prose, River Run is an intelligent mystery that captures Oregon's Willamette Valley in all its glory and haunting beauty. I can't wait for the next Delia Chavez novel." - Christine Carbo, bestselling author of A Sharp Solitude
This information about River Run was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
J. S. James lives near Portland, Oregon with his family, including their "Velcro" Vizsla and furry red exercise machine, Maggie. He completed a popular fiction writing program in Washington, but grew up fishing and hunting in Oregon. River Run won first place in the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association's mystery/thriller contest, and was runner-up and "highly commended" in the Crime Writer's Association's Debut Dagger contest. This is J. S. James's first novel. Currently, he's hard at work on more novels in the genre.
If you liked River Run, try these:
by Jeff VanderMeer
Published 2022
From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things.
by Richard Osman
Published 2021
Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to...
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
by Abby Geni
Published 2017
A debut novel from a talented and provocative new writer which upends the traditional structure of a mystery novel while also exploring wider themes of the natural world, the power of loss, and the nature of recovery.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
