Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Sarah Jane
James Sallie
Review by Priscilla Comen
Sarah Jane
James Sallie
Review by Priscilla Comen
Sarah Jane, by James Sallis, is the story of Sarah Jane Pullman, told in her own voice. We learn she was in an auto accident, and later worked in a café kitchen. She drifted from one cooking job to another and now works at a shelter cooking soup and biscuits, and fish on Fridays.
The cops come looking for Dan Eskew at her place. He’s gone, but one of the cops, BH, returns to take her to dinner at a neighborhood bar. Author Sallis gives the reader details of the setting. We are there. One day, Dan Eskew returns, then leaves again. BH is nice at first, then puts his hands around Sarah’s neck and she slams his head onto the floor and leaves. She becomes ill for five days, then well enough to go to a diner down her street where she runs into Marta, an old friend who has put her life together after a fall. She has gone back to school and is now a paralegal for the ACLU and unions. Perhaps she’s an inspiration for Sarah Jane.
Sarah Jane has many experiences and analyzes them. She goes back to school and works at a faux bakery from four A.M. until 10 A.M. She meets a traffic cop named Random and they move in together, passing each other in the night hours between shifts. He’s later shot and killed during a random traffic stop. After everything, she applies for a job as a cop with the small town of Fahr. Cal Phillips interviews her and she gets the job immediately.
Months later she’s called to go to a house where the owner hasn’t been seen for a while. She finds him, Willie Patch, in the full bathtub, an open beer bottle on the tub’s rim. He’s dead. He was so peaceful and calm, she never forgets him. She goes to see his friend, Riley Robinson, a black man who tells her about Patch’s life. Patch had “read law” and become a lawyer. When Sarah gets to the office she finds that Cal is missing. She rides to his house with Will and they find everything in neat order. Only one room had been lived in. There was no sign of a struggle or robbery. She writes in her journal about public lives, private lives.
Cal calls her just to see if she’s all right in her job. She is now the sheriff.
Another day, a black man, Tyrell Martin, comes in from the FBI and asks about Calvin Phillips. He seems satisfied with her answers. She does her job well on the small town force, even when the local high school needs her advice. She meets a man named Sid whose twenty-year-old Mercedes Benz has stopped and needs a mechanic. She drives him to the local garage and the next day he takes her to lunch in appreciation. They begin a regular habit of seeing one another.
After lunch with the mayor, Sarah finds the messages on her refrigerator have been moved and replaced almost perfectly. By whom? Sarah’s visits an old woman at a nursing home show her as a caring person until Miss Whit dies. A former policeman, Pryor Mills, is found dead by early morning hunters. He was from New Mexico where Sarah had been living. Is there a connection? She has dinner with Sid at her apartment and he tells her about a case he’s been working on. A package arrives for Sarah. It’s a notebook filled with philosophical meanderings in Cal’s handwriting. She starts cooking again, enough for an army, and takes the meals to the nursing home. Author Sallis presents clues about Sarah Jane in abundance.
A boy is missing, then found caring for an older woman who is dieing of cancer. All these cases make Sarah Jane think about her role as sheriff. Does she stay in her job there in the small town of Fahr? Do she and Sid stay together? Does Cal come back? What was Sarah’s background in New Mexico? Author Sallis has won awards for excellence in crime fiction in France, Germany, Spain and the New York Times notable Book of the Year. This one is on the new mystery shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
The cops come looking for Dan Eskew at her place. He’s gone, but one of the cops, BH, returns to take her to dinner at a neighborhood bar. Author Sallis gives the reader details of the setting. We are there. One day, Dan Eskew returns, then leaves again. BH is nice at first, then puts his hands around Sarah’s neck and she slams his head onto the floor and leaves. She becomes ill for five days, then well enough to go to a diner down her street where she runs into Marta, an old friend who has put her life together after a fall. She has gone back to school and is now a paralegal for the ACLU and unions. Perhaps she’s an inspiration for Sarah Jane.
Sarah Jane has many experiences and analyzes them. She goes back to school and works at a faux bakery from four A.M. until 10 A.M. She meets a traffic cop named Random and they move in together, passing each other in the night hours between shifts. He’s later shot and killed during a random traffic stop. After everything, she applies for a job as a cop with the small town of Fahr. Cal Phillips interviews her and she gets the job immediately.
Months later she’s called to go to a house where the owner hasn’t been seen for a while. She finds him, Willie Patch, in the full bathtub, an open beer bottle on the tub’s rim. He’s dead. He was so peaceful and calm, she never forgets him. She goes to see his friend, Riley Robinson, a black man who tells her about Patch’s life. Patch had “read law” and become a lawyer. When Sarah gets to the office she finds that Cal is missing. She rides to his house with Will and they find everything in neat order. Only one room had been lived in. There was no sign of a struggle or robbery. She writes in her journal about public lives, private lives.
Cal calls her just to see if she’s all right in her job. She is now the sheriff.
Another day, a black man, Tyrell Martin, comes in from the FBI and asks about Calvin Phillips. He seems satisfied with her answers. She does her job well on the small town force, even when the local high school needs her advice. She meets a man named Sid whose twenty-year-old Mercedes Benz has stopped and needs a mechanic. She drives him to the local garage and the next day he takes her to lunch in appreciation. They begin a regular habit of seeing one another.
After lunch with the mayor, Sarah finds the messages on her refrigerator have been moved and replaced almost perfectly. By whom? Sarah’s visits an old woman at a nursing home show her as a caring person until Miss Whit dies. A former policeman, Pryor Mills, is found dead by early morning hunters. He was from New Mexico where Sarah had been living. Is there a connection? She has dinner with Sid at her apartment and he tells her about a case he’s been working on. A package arrives for Sarah. It’s a notebook filled with philosophical meanderings in Cal’s handwriting. She starts cooking again, enough for an army, and takes the meals to the nursing home. Author Sallis presents clues about Sarah Jane in abundance.
A boy is missing, then found caring for an older woman who is dieing of cancer. All these cases make Sarah Jane think about her role as sheriff. Does she stay in her job there in the small town of Fahr? Do she and Sid stay together? Does Cal come back? What was Sarah’s background in New Mexico? Author Sallis has won awards for excellence in crime fiction in France, Germany, Spain and the New York Times notable Book of the Year. This one is on the new mystery shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.