The Anderson, Montana sheriff’s department is mostly concerned with traffic stops, trespassing, and maintaining the orderly bustle of a tourist town in the mountains. But when the body of a much-disliked antiques hawker turns up with a fork in the head, Sheriff Peter Elliot must poke through the seedier side of his town to unravel a tangled web of theft, extortion, and murder.
The third entry in Kit Karson’s Anderson Chronicles, JUSTICE RENDERED is filled to the brim with the charming detail of small-town life slightly off the beaten path in ranching country. During the course of his investigation, the sheriff must pay his respects at the local Women’s Club Luncheon; a murder suspect clams up when questioned – because he’s mostly concerned that he’ll receive a citation for where he dumps his lawn trimmings. This small-town flavor extends to the particulars of law enforcement in Anderson: the sheriff’s department has very limited resources, and occasionally has to ship business out to neighboring or county-level departments, including clearing out their limited jail space as new prisoners come in. The text’s overall understanding of law enforcement is also grounded and satisfying. Here, for instance, the protagonists are not super-human investigators, or even particularly clever; important moments in the investigation hinge on good luck and cooperation with other departments. In all these elements, JUSTICE RENDERED is compelling as both a charming portrait of Anderson, Montana, but also a reasonably down-to-earth procedural.
The plot moves along briskly, and although this keeps up the excitement and interest, it also brushes over material which could support deeper scrutiny. One link in the investigative chain, for instance, is the economic precarity of local ranchers, who have been suffering from a shortage of hay for several years. This kind of intimate specificity carries a lot of interest, and it has multiple levels within it – there are cultural differences not only between the town folks, who cater to tourists, and the country ranchers, but also within the hierarchy of ranchers, the older of whom own their farms outright and don’t suffer the same way from market fluctuations. Unfortunately, these deeper levels are only mentioned, not explored. This is also true of the cast overall. Sheriff Elliot is the perfect example: he’s a terse professional with a tracking dog, an ex-wife, and a mandatory Stetson, but there’s very little real character to him. This ends up being the case for the cast overall: there’s a network of relationships here, but the individual nodes never quite flesh out. This can lead to some disappointment – notably, in the ultimate solution of the central crime – since few characters are really compelling in and of themselves. Nonetheless, JUSTICE RENDERED does everything it needs to, with enough scenic detail and investigative gumption to keep the pages turning for any crime aficionado.
Kit Karson’s JUSTICE RENDERED is brisk and fun, with just enough twists to stay fresh to the end.
~Dan Accardi for IndieReader