Shipmate
The Alumni Magazine of the United States Naval Academy
(June 2005 issue)

Blood Atonement
A DAHLGREEN WALLACE MYSTERY
©2005, The Lyons Press, Guilford CT (An imprint of the Globe Pequot Press)

Authored by Jim Tenuto

Reviewed by Larry Warrenfeltz

For many years my favorite action-mystery-series hero has been Travis McGee, brought to life from the pen of John D. MacDonald. It appears to me that the spirit of Travis McGee has left the houseboat in Cedar Key, Florida and taken up residence in the cabin of a fly-fishing guide in Montana. Dahlgren Wallace is a tough, witty ex-college football star and a veteran of USMC Force Recon missions in the first Gulf War. Wallace wants nothing more than to live peacefully, guide the guests, and fish the river on the huge Montana ranch owned by media mogul Fred Lather. Instead he finds himself in the middle of two murder investigations and a frontier land war. Along the way to proving his innocence and protecting his boss's interests, Wallace deals with a vast array of Montana players--including neo-Nazi militia, radical environmentalists, good old boy cattle ranchers, religious zealots, a peaceful ranching commune, and the FBI.

I think Dahlgren Wallace normally leads a fairly quiet life, standing aside and observing the world around him with a wry sense of humor. But during the weeks following the murder of one of his "sports," Wallace is right in the middle of the action. Drawing on his Special Operations training, he ignores the assorted injuries he receives at the hands of the lunatics and fanatics that seem to focus on him. He keeps his mind and tongue sharp, and untangles multiple crimes while his old low-tech sheriff buddy and his new high-tech FBI friends observe from the sidelines.

Jim Tenuto's novel is the first in what I hope will be a long series of Dahlgren Wallace mysteries. Tenuto has a clever, amusing style that entertains the reader even as he draws you deeper and deeper into the plot of the story. His witty phrases and adroit word-plays are sprinkled throughout the text--waiting to be discovered and smiled at by the alert reader. His peripheral characters are rather one-dimensional, but they are so well-described and so entertaining that the reader willingly accepts them as charming additions to Dahlgren's Montana world.

Tenuto shares his expertise in dry fly fishing and his extensive research in comparative religion and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints without preaching or talking down to his audience. In reading this book I learned a lot, I laughed a lot, and I enjoyed a pretty darn good mystery to boot. To quote his ranch owner Fred Lather, Tenuto gives his readers "The Royal $*#@ Treatment!"