CRIME: Review

When Vermont natives refer to their rocky soil as "bony," they are not talking about a skeleton buried in the back 40. But that's what Joe Gunther, the flinty Brattleboro cop in Archer Mayor's rugged police procedurals, digs up in THE SKELETON'S KNEE (Mysterious Press/Warner, $18.95), on the land of a reclusive farm tenant who has recently died of an old, unexplained gunshot wound. A prosthetic kneecap found with the human bones is not only a work of art -- "beautifully designed, immaculately crafted and surgically precise" -- but also the sole clue to the hermit's shady past, which calls for the kind of deep and detailed investigative work that Gunther does so well. There's a lot of huggermugger, to be sure, in this contrived plot about a fascistic religious group that has holed up in a lonesome outpost of Nevada. The mind also boggles a bit at [Neal Carey]'s simplistic and foolhardy assignment to pass himself off as a ranch hand so he can infiltrate the military training camp of this kooky outfit and rescue a kidnapped child. Still, the scenery is splendid, and there is something irresistible about the good-natured efforts of this city slicker to turn himself into a real "rootin'-tootin', two-fisted drinkin', barroom-brawlin' cowboy." And whenever the epic tone of "Way Down on the High Lonely" threatens to climb way up on its high horse, Mr. [Don Winslow] has the good sense to send Neal to some homely hot spot like the Filly Ranch or Phil and Margie's Country Cabaret for a restorative dose of local color. Darned if it doesn't work like a charm every time.