This reviewer has two main problems with The Old Gray Wolf, only one of which can be laid to the author. It's part of a series. It is the 17th (and final) book in the "Charlie Moon Mystery" series -- a fact which would have pushed it off the TBR stack and into the donation bag, had it been apparent beforehand.

Admittedly, that's a personal preference; however one of the biggest problems of more-or-less stand-alone novels within long series is that the author, having established characterizations early on, may not spend much time acquainting the new-to-the-series reader with the ins and outs of the players. Returning readers would find it tedious, but the newcomer doesn't learn much about what makes the character tick. That absence is present in spades here. All we know about the two main characters are that Police Chief Scott Parris is a retired Chicago cop and his best friend / part-time deputy, Charlie Moon, is a cattle rancher and member of the Ute tribe. And, oh -- Parris is packing a few extra pounds and Moon is tall and skinny. We know that because Doss reminds us every few pages.

Okay, as noted above, authors have no responsibility to ensure that readers who casually pick up a book come to it with a full understanding of previous volumes.

But the second, and for more damaging factor, is Doss's folksy, intrusive, and over-written style. For the first few pages, it's kind of fun, but after a couple of chapters, it becomes an annoyance and -- ultimately -- a real barrier to finding the meat of the story. Doss apparently never met a simile he didn't want to spin into a story of its own, and almost every page has a cringingly-bad example. A character, surprised by someone else's statement "...lurched like an anteater whose yard-long tongue has just licked a tasty six-legged delicacy off a pulsing electric fence". You get the picture.

Plotwise, it's pretty thin broth. A petty felon, arrested for purse-snatching, dies while in custody. Because both Parris and Moon had clocked the guy in the process, it's assumed that they caused his death. (In reality, an earlier close encounter with a saloon bouncer and a fire plug had started the brain bleed which did him in.) However, this salient detail is unknown to the thief's mother, a heavy-duty gangster mom, who promptly hires a mysterious assassin to "make them suffer the way [she has] suffered". The rest of the story unreels as assorted characters find out about the hit, try to notify Parris and Moon and/or keep the contract from being carried out.

There are several deaths before everything is untangled, though how Moon figures it all out is left rather vague.

There are a few chuckles along the way (mostly early on, before Doss's cutesy style has become cloying), and one memorable character -- Moon's honorary auntie, a Ute tribal elder who talks to spirits -- but they are sparse rewards for what is essentially a mystery story without much mystery and a suspense tale lacking suspense. ( )

A little too much cutesy repartee makes it difficult to stay engaged with a fairly interesting plot with a surprising ending. Flipping pages does move it along, some unneeded deaths eliminate some interesting character but Charlie and his aunt still carry this series nicely. ( )

No Rating: Although the story has much merit, the writing style left me for dead! (Pun intended)

I stopped reading this book on Chapter Nine:

I do believe this will be my last time reading a Charlie Moon mystery, as I am thoroughly disgusted with Doss's writing style. For me this is very sad as I do love Aunt Daisy and I like Charlie Moon & Scott Parrish very much as well. Normally I can ignore Doss's smart ass & snide comments and read through to the end of the book, but this time it proved too much for me.

I have said this many times before and I'm saying it again.... Doss clearly writes for his own pleasure. His over the top sarcasm & self congratulatory manner of "wittiness" is long overdue for retirement, which I why I finally put this book down.

The book begins w/ an old woman dying & giving Tribal Office Danny Big Night instructions to relay a message directly to Aunt Daisy. The message is a curse that shall befall Aunty Daisy should she not attend the woman's funeral.

The story continues with a weasel walking into a bar & causing trouble. The bartender (a woman of size and intent) bounces him out of the bar.... When he regains consciousness, he lifts a woman's purse and is caught & stopped in the act by Chief Scott Parish & Charlie Moon, where upon his trip to jail he expires form blunt object trauma (caused by his bar expulsion). An up and coming reporter decided the weasel is a victim of Police Brutality & seizes the opportunity to blog about his demise......

This is where I stopped....... ( )

Five stars for the final Charlie Moon book. James D. Doss was truly one-of-a-kind when it came to writing humorous mysteries. The final installment has more blood and gore than normal, but it's funny and quirky in the usual way. Rest in peace, Mr. Doss. ( )