‘Tahoe Jade’ mixes mystery with California history
I read Todd Borg’s latest Owen McKenna mystery, “Tahoe Jade,” so quickly I didn’t even have a chance to take it to the pool.
As in all Borg’s mysteries, the prologue tells of the first murder. But this murder happens more than a hundred years ago to a young Pony Express rider killed for his horse while on his way to deliver mail to Lake Tahoe. Among the letters he carries is one from President Abraham Lincoln to Gov. Elect Leland Stanford. Even an amateur sleuth knows that the Lincoln letter and its mysterious contents bode more importance than the deceased rider.
Nothing in Borg’s writing should go unnoticed. In Chapter One, we meet and greet our stalwart ex-SF-cop-now-private-investigator Owen McKenna and his longtime girlfriend Street Casey, along with his constant four-legged companion, Spot. The Harlequin Great Dane is affectionately known as “his largeness.” The reader should remember this as we watch Street demonstrate her parkour finesse to McKenna. (Parkour is a sport defining the skilled beauty of running over boulders.)
Just before the chapter ends is the expected call for help from a soon-to-be client: “Please don’t hang up! Please hear me out. I’m not crazy!”
Here are the first facts
New client Jade Jaso has received a work-related death threat.
Jade’s mother died when she was young and came from a long line of female Chinese ancestors named Jade.
Jade’s father is Basque and raised Jade on his own; he recently died from a fall at their property in Christmas Valley on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe.
More facts slowly emerge. At McKenna’s suggestion, Jade spends the night at a motel and her house is broken into, leaving evidence of a search for something.
Jade owns three horses. One of them is a prized thoroughbred purchased by her father when its owner, a jailed felon, could not pay the horse’s boarding fees. This allowed Jade’s dad to buy it under the California equine lien foreclosure process.
After a warehouse fire, a fellow firefighter dies under questionable circumstances. Jade, now retired from the Sacramento Fire Department, believes the threat on her life is related.
Add to all this a neighbor who leaves the area to attend a Buddhist retreat in China, the now questionable death of Jade’s father, Pony Express reenactments, historical facts of stolen Chinese carvings and a long and strong trail of female abuse.
Then throw in a near-fatal aerial hunt for the surprising kidnapping of Jade and her horses.
Borg’s arsenal reaches deeper than firearms. California history, literary-connected characters, cultural traditions, and an overriding interest in women and their place in this world make “Tahoe Jade” a summer must-read.
Sunny Solomon is a freelance writer and head of the Clayton Book Club. Visit her website at bookinwithsunny.com for her latest recommendations or just to ‘talk books.’
Sunny Solomon
Sunny Solomon holds an MA in English/Creative Writing, San Francisco State University. She is a book reviewer for “The Clayton Pioneer” and her poetry and other writing has been published in literary journals, one chapbook, In the Company of Hope and the collection, Six Poets Sixty-six Poems. She was the happy manager of Bonanza Books, Clayton, CA and Clayton Books, Clayton, CA. She continues to moderate a thriving book club that survived the closure of the store from which it began. Sunny currently lives next to the Truckee in Reno, NV.