PARI is the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. Sitting deep in the Pisgah National Forest SW of Asheville. Started out as a NASA site for keeping in touch with the Apollo program. After NASA, it became part of an intelligence gathering network where Russia and the US were tapping the other’s communications. With the end of the cold war, it became a research setting for astronomers. And with that come the alien nuts and conspiracy wackos. Asheville is ground zero for alien watchers (all that is true).
The hot dry summer means forest fires. And one is dangerously close to PARI. Firefighters use a bulldoze to dig in a fire line around PARI. In the process, a skeleton is dug up. When something like surfaces, law enforcement assumes the worst until proven otherwise. The Asheville ME’s first observation is murder given the gaping slash across the back of the skull.
Sam Blackman is a veteran of Afghanistan, minus his lower left leg. He partners with Nakayla Robertson in a PI business. They are lunching with a colorful bunch of locals, including a latter-day hippie/defense attorney and a few from his office. When Sam brings up the skeleton, the lawyer’s paralegal Cory goes pale, saying, ‘It’s him.’
‘Him’ would be her uncle she never met, Frank DeMille. He used to work at the PARI site in its Apollo days, but just fell off the face of the earth in 1971. DNA from her and the skeleton reveal the connection. Now they must tell her aunt and Frank’s sister up in Roanoke. Sam, Nakayla, and Cory drive up there. During the conversation, we learn that the sister’s husband, an army intelligence officer, were good friends. And that the officer died in Vietnam within a month of Frank’s disappearance.
Frank also had a girlfriend. A local mountain girl who worked at PARI site when it was with NASA. Her family wasn’t happy. Not one bit. Didn’t like that an outsider had taken up with her. And that’s not all. Given the location of the find and what it was used for when Frank disappeared makes for jurisdictional nightmare with local, county, state, and feds trying to work in an uneasy alliance. The cops are focused on the family. But Max and Nakayla do what every good PI should do. Follow the evidence no matter where it goes.
And it goes all over the place. Charlotte, Raleigh, Army chief warrant officers, Vietnam records, Putin (really?), alien abduction theorists, mountain family musicians, local bars and alleys, and (something I’d never heard of) the National Centers for Environmental Information (THE place for weather information. Their data storage facility is measured in the petrabytes – that’s a lot).
Wow. That’s a lot for a small book (6x9 inches, 252 pages) and yet the story doesn’t seem forced or cluttered. I read that the author has 40 years of production experience in theater and Hollywood. Obviously, that experience works because de Cristique is a very good storyteller.
I was at the local library picking up an interlibrary loan item and took a few minutes to stroll through the racks. Lots of options, but nothing that couldn’t wait. Noticed a new section promoting NC authors. Now I’m a sucker for NC authors so I glanced at some titles. Saw several books by de Castrique. Mysteries. That’s good. PI stories. Even better. All based in Asheville. SOLD! Asheville is one of my favorite places in the US. Then I see that this story spends a lot of time at PARI, the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, which is off a winding mountain road near Rosman/Brevard/Balsom Grove, NC, maybe a half hour from Asheville. All places I’ve been when camping and hiking while on the prowl for waterfalls. Familiar terrain. I checked it out.
I really liked this book. The setting was a delight. Easily identifiable characters. A smart and complex plot. And just enough ‘wink-wink’ dialogue to make it all more realistic. De Castrique was a chance find that will give me plenty of options when I find myself between books and looking for something comfortable. With around 20 novels to his credit, I don’t think I’ll be lacking for options.
Next time I’m camping in Pisgah, a side trip to PARI will be a must.
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