THE SEARCHER is not a book about Mike Pender (and a tip of the fedora to you if you understand that obscure reference without googling it). Rather, it is one of those genre-crossing novels that is both marvelous and unsettling, full of myth and grounded in the real world, a bloody noir and a contemporary western, a mystery and a thriller. Written by Simon Toyne, who is a wondrous storyteller, it features a character named Solomon Creed, who is entirely original, even as he reminds you of everyone from Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon to Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name and John Connolly’s Charlie Parker.

"Toyne keeps things steady as he shifts smoothly from one subplot to another toward their convergence. It’s a big book, but it moves and gallops, sings and excites."

So what is THE SEARCHER about? Lots of things under one heading. Simply put, it is the account of a very long and fateful day in the life of the small tourist town of Redemption, Arizona, much beloved by history buffs but otherwise seemingly unnoteworthy. That changes when a plane crash occurs just outside of the city limits and sparks a fire that threatens to engulf the entire town. The aforementioned Solomon Creed walks out of the smoke and fire, barefoot and seemingly unscathed, with absolutely no memory of who he is. His name is ultimately determined by some rather unorthodox methods --- he carries no driver’s license or passport --- as is his enigmatic tie to a local resident named James Coronado. Creed has the sense that he is to rescue Coronado from something, but it develops that he is a day late and a dollar short, literally, given that the town buried the recently deceased Coronado the very morning that Creed arrived.

The crash has other significance as well. The son of Papa Tio, the head of a vicious Mexican cartel, was also supposed to be picked up from that plane. When Tio is told that all that remains of his son is a skull and a few bones, he heads to Redemption seeking vengeance. The local mayor and police chief hatch a plot to divert Tio by placing the blame for the crash on Creed, who, it appears, was probably not even on the plane. Creed has an encyclopedic knowledge of things in general and the martial arts in particular, and is able to take care of himself. He believes that the key to his identity and his origin may be tied to the man he believes he was supposed to save and to a local church with a storied history. There is a lot in Solomon’s way, including death, destruction, and all sorts of double- and triple-crosses. There are some acts of redemption as well that provide a satisfying ending to what is one of the best and most interesting books of 2015 thus far.

At a little past the midway point, Toyne introduces a beautiful, wild horse that cannot be tamed until Creed climbs atop him and the horse succumbs to his strong but gentle ministrations. That horse could be a metaphor for THE SEARCHER. The concept presented here might be wild and unwieldy in lesser hands, and go galloping off in any one of a number of different directions. However, Toyne keeps things steady as he shifts smoothly from one subplot to another toward their convergence. It’s a big book, but it moves and gallops, sings and excites.