Michael Fields is back with the third installment of the Twin River saga, A Death at One Thousand Steps. We revisit the series starting with Green Hollow Correctional Camp officers Max Wright and his long-time partner Luther Cicconi, who abduct female students to be featured in mobster Don Scavone’s adult video business. Deputy Oliver Wright, Max Wright’s brother, covers their activities by misleading the girls’ worried families and friends using his position as a deputy officer, making the missing girls’ cases a sure dead end.

Readers who have been following the series from Book One (Twin River) will be satisfied to know that the solid quality of grittiness, mayhem and drama are maintained in this third book. Once again Fields takes us back down Memory Lane with the 1980s setting. Readers will share their fear for the abducted girls and the intriguing and complex relationship between the characters. The sinister organized crime featured in Twin River jettisons all human niceties and civility.

Even with the absence of his twin, Abel Towers continue his psychopathic conduct and once again rains terror on the Wilson family. Matt and his friends are risking their lives to save the abducted girls – it was quite an adrenaline-pumping scene to read. With a clear cut narrative and swift pace, A Death at One Thousand Steps is easily engaging. Kudos to Michael Fields for maintaining a solid quality for the series, as he manages to balance the dramatic weight, action and violence. The story ends with Wesley Palladin heading to Philadelphia with a mission, which no doubt will continue in the next installment, Twin River IV: When The Cold Wind Blows.

In Twin Rivers III: A Death at One Thousand Steps, Wesley Palladin continues his work against mobster Scavone, and the town of Barree remains a danger zone for pretty young girls. The threat of kidnapping is still very much alive in a town totally unaware of the sinister sex video business going on literally under its nose. With his twin brother dead and gone and his “girlfriend” pregnant with her own twins, Abel takes on the role of doting father-to-be. Abel kidnaps Beckie and becomes convinced that his dead brother is advising him into fatherhood. The corrupt law enforcement of Barree continues to provide an adequate cover for all activities otherwise deemed illegal. When Cody officially enrolls into Twin River High School, his former military school principal attempts to convince him to reconsider. But Cody and his mother need to be close to the security of Wesley Palladin.

The soap opera effect of Twin Rivers III reassures the reader that there is more action to come. Author Michael Fields continues to emulate such prime time cult classics as Twin Peaks in his use of odd dark humor. His use of metaphor in character names and situations helps readers relate to the plot twists, while the existence of mob activity adds the allure of organized crime, but in a small town setting. I appreciate the fact that Fields offers his readers a variety of plots and characters to follow in his multi-faceted weave of drama.