Wall of Glass

By Walter Satterthwait

A conversation with a jewel thief draws Croft into an insurance investigation.

It is April in Santa Fe, and a blizzard draws near. Private investigator Joshua Croft sits bored in his office, hoping he'll get home in time to avoid the storm. Just before closing, a man enters, wearing jeans, a Stetson, and a hard-eyed squint that tells Croft he wears the outfit for work, not fashion. A friend of the cowboy's possesses of a haul of stolen jewels, and wants Croft's help selling them back to the insurance company. Croft humors the cowboy, fishing for information on the heist, but the stranger leaves without giving away the scheme. The next day, the cowboy is found stone-cold dead, riddled with bullets.

The owners of the stolen jewels hire Croft to find their missing property. Along the way he dips deep into Santa Fe's underground, looking for the killers of the cowboy who came in from the cold.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784088446

Walter Satterthwait

Walter Satterthwait (b. 1946) is an author of mysteries and historical fiction. A fan of mystery novels from a young age, he spent high school immersed in the works of Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane. While working as a bartender in New York in the late 1970s, he wrote his first book: an adventure novel, Cocaine Blues (1979), about a drug dealer on the run from a pair of killers.

Reviews for Wall of Glass

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ever since visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico a couple of years ago, I've found myself wanting to read more mysteries set there. When I came across the first in the Joshua Croft series, Wall of Glass, I remembered enjoying a book he'd written about Lizzie Borden, so I had to give this book a try. I'm glad I did.We don't learn much about Croft's backstory in this book. He's a private investigator working for the Mondragon Agency owned by wheelchair-bound Rita Mondragon. He's approached by a cowboy who wants Croft to fence a stolen necklace worth $100,000. Croft turns him down, and the cowboy is found dead the next day. The insurance company now wants the Mondragon Agency to find the necklace.This involves Croft digging through the backgrounds of the dead cowboy, his associates, and the rich family from whom the necklace was stolen. Of course, he finds skeletons in every closet he pokes his nose into with the requisite danger heightening at every turn.This is a strong mystery with plenty of misdirection, and I certainly did enjoy its New Mexico setting. I also liked Joshua Croft's voice and his sense of humor. I'll definitely be reading more of this series. Now would also be a good time to give a shout-out to Open Road Integrated Media for bringing back so many older, well-written books which certainly deserve a new lease on life.