Code Sixty-One [Hardcover]

‘Harstad’s first-hand experience ensures his storytelling always rings true.’ Arena

‘The Big Thaw, set in the dead of winter in a Fargo-like mid-west, is American procedural writing at its best.’ Guardian

The fourth in the original and authentic crime series set in Nation County, Iowa, featuring Carl Houseman and his team, in which Carl finds himself tracking a killer who believes he is a vampire, with an equally unbalanced ‘vampire hunter’ hot on their heels.

It's a bright October morning and Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman is not due on shift for several hours. And then the phone rings. A woman is dead; suspected suicide. The dispatcher can't reveal the details: it's a Code 61. Something serious has happened over at the Mansion and he's not allowed to ask too many questions over the radio.

When Carl arrives at the huge, mysterious house isolated in the woodlands above the Mississippi, he can see why his colleagues are nervous. The young woman lying dead in the bath on the second floor happens to be Edie, the melancholy niece of Carl's boss, Sheriff Ridgeway, and she's tried to commit suicide before. But something about the body's vicious neck wounds tells Carl this case isn't going to be that simple.

As Carl and his feisty partner, FBI Special Agent Hester Gorse, delve deeper into the secrets of the Mansion and its young residents they uncover a terrifying mystery that will shock the American midwest.

It's a bright October morning and Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman is not due on shift for several hours. And then the phone rings. A woman is dead; suspected suicide. The dispatcher can't reveal the details: it's a Code 61. Something serious has happened over at the Mansion and he's not allowed to ask too many questions over the radio.

When Carl arrives at the huge, mysterious house isolated in the woodlands above the Mississippi, he can see why his colleagues are nervous. The young woman lying dead in the bath on the second floor happens to be Edie, the melancholy niece of Carl's boss, Sheriff Ridgeway, and she's tried to commit suicide before. But something about the body's vicious neck wounds tells Carl this case isn't going to be that simple.

As Carl and his feisty partner, FBI Special Agent Hester Gorse, delve deeper into the secrets of the Mansion and its young residents they uncover a terrifying mystery that will shock the American midwest.

Donald Harstad is a twenty-six year veteran of the Clayton County Sherrif’s Department in northeastern Iowa where he was a former deputy sherrif. He is the author of three earlier crime stories featuring Carl Houseman: ELEVEN DAYS, THE KNOWN DEAD and THE BIG THAW. He lives in Elkader, Iowa.