Unfortunately, beginning the Dave Gurney series at the end puts me at a disadvantage in knowing some of the characters, but I enjoyed 'White River Burning' quite a lot. Not because it's exceptionally well-written (it's OK), exciting (lots of procedural stuff), or has a hot-shot protagonist with all the answers but because the lead character had the same questions about aspects of the case under investigation as I had while reading the story. It doesn't happen often.

Dave Gurney is a retired extremely successful NY detective, living out in the sticks and enjoying a pretty boring existence. Because of his previous work as a homicide detective, he's asked to help out in investigating some seemingly race-related murders that are causing tension in his adopted community. He gets engaged in the investigation and is off and running. Rather quickly, there seems to be a breakthrough in the case, but he, and he alone, sees it differently. Things turn around, there's another breakthrough, and again there are issues. It resolves itself at the end in a pretty violent way.

This is a nice procedural that gives great insight into how an effective investigator thinks about criminal activity. Gurney's kind of a boring character but brings tremendous expertise into his role and it was nice to see him have problems with the same things that bothered me. There are usually open issues and gaps in procedurals that cause me to question how a trial would be conducted based on evidence, but he took all that into account and wrapped things up accordingly. It's a worthwhile read. ( )