Matters of Doubt is a darn good yarn! Author Warren C. Easley’s[1] first Cal Claxton mystery novel accomplishes several winning outcomes. Claxton is a former LA prosecutor turned attorney whose sympathy for the disenfranchised minority forges, if not forces him into the role of sleuth. He makes his way into your heart and then finds a way to make himself as welcome as an old friend. He battles personal demons—his wife’s suicide and a budget that is purposely of modest means. He has serious doubts, too, about the troubled youth who rode a bicycle for miles through Oregon rain to his door. Why should Claxton care about a street-kid artist with snake tattoos and piercings? Then he sheds light on a cold-case trail, and he squares off with imminent peril. It is his own sense of duty and his newly donned detective hat that place him deeply in the way of harm.

The tale is set in Portland, Oregon. Claxton has moved nearby to begin a new life. Portland, Oregon—The City of Roses, The City of Homes, The City That Works!—at the confluence of two mighty rivers—and like any city, it is a good home for murder.

Mr. Easley’s minimalist style is perfect for his noire-like tale—a genuine whodunit times three. Who killed Picasso’s (the street artist’s) mother eight-years ago? Who killed suspect number-one, his mother’s own boyfriend? And whose dark and powerful political forces are well-hidden but lurking behind in the cover-up?

This novel works on several levels. The mystery itself wends a fast-paced journey to a rollicking wrap-up. Yet, the under-story mirrors the mystery in poetic fashion. How can Portland, Oregon, the bastion of liberal lifestyles and the fabled home of progressive living, be also a cavernous pit of poverty? Picasso is a skilled muralist whose current project reveals local and historical heroes leading a symbolic march toward a better world. But Picasso’s predicament exposes society’s most vulnerable souls to the one man he thinks may help him. Cal Claxton, the attorney, the prosecutor, is a man of “safe” means. But he is a man in mourning—a man dealing with grief while at the same time facing up to the illumination that his career ambition contributed to his wife’s unnoticed spiral toward suicide. Picasso brings Cal face to face with the unseen community around us where people not far removed from our own lot must deal each day with the grief and loss that homelessness delivers. With only the means that they carry in backpacks and shopping carts, the homeless are forced into battle against brazen apathy to their sad and barren conditions. Especially, the children—Picasso’s peers—they are forced by circumstances not of their design into bands who cling to survival with little hope except for their own comradeship.

Cal Claxton finds the way, but not without a great deal of help. His Cuban friend Nando, Anna the doctor at the free clinic, Picasso’s “posse,” and even his faithful canine companion—Archie, the Australian shepherd—are among Cal’s collaborators and his saviors. If the story involves Portland, after all, there will be a dog in it. Speaking of Portland, Mr. Easley includes many landmarks and neighborhoods—from St. Johns to John’s Landing, from the Pearl to Lents, from “Dignity Village” to Lake Oswego, from Laurelhurst to PDX, from Westover to Westmoreland and east to 82nd Ave.  The City of Roses is on display—a “character” in her own right. Like Picasso’s mural, it unfolds before a reader’s eyes. Yet, unlike the mural, the city we are so proud of does not always shine brightly below the majesty of Mt. Hood. But what city does?

For a Portland reader, Matters of Doubt feels right at home. And I recommend it to readers everywhere, to readers of all walks and all stations of life, to readers who are interested in drama—the high art of murder resolution, and the deep sadness of loss, especially for the loss of love, respect and attention. But mostly, I recommend this book to readers who like to find that Hope lies somewhere in the mix.

Dead Float, Warren Easley’s #2 Cal Claxton mystery novel, has risen to the top of my reading list.

[1] See: http://www.warreneasley.com/ and http://www.poisonedpenpress.com/matters-of-doubt/