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Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
The Dancing Boy, by Michael Matson, is a mystery set in the Pacific Northwest. Treat Mikkelson lives on Drake Island in a small cabin by the water with his cat Ackerman. He's retired from a lifetime of studying and writing about crime, and keeps himself busy crabbing, fishing, and harvesting enough clams for dinner. Treat has regrets about his past. His service in Vietnam left him scarred and unable to completely give himself to his family. After their divorce, his wife and their two children moved to France, and Treat never got to be a part of his kids' lives. His plans for now are to live quietly and maybe write a book about his life on Drake Island. This all changes when an elderly woman in La Conner is found at the foot of her stairs with a broken neck. Although the authorities are inclined to consider it an accident, her friend Cassie suspects foul play and asks Treat to investigate the matter.
Michael Matson's mystery has an opening chapter set in 331 B.C., but it's very much a story told in modern times. Treat is an iconic, self-contained ex-Ranger with a penchant for garish Hawaiian shirts and a love for blues and Hawaiian music. He's a great study for a classic hard-boiled mystery, and the Pacific Northwest setting tweaks the traditional crime noir marvelously. Matson makes Western Washington come alive for the reader as Treat and local law enforcement learn the reason why Margaret Neilssen died and act to foil a drug-smuggling and child pornography ring. The Dancing Boy is great reading; fast-paced and absorbing, and you might find yourself considering a cabin on the water in the Pacific Northwest after reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed The Dancing Boy and highly recommend it.
