Cactus Heart is the beginning of the series that brings David Mapstone back to Phoenix, AZ and his childhood home. Mapstone comes back to his grandparents’ home to renew his life in Phoenix and start over after the death of his wife and baby son. He grabs a job as the cold case historical consultant for the Sheriff’s Office under his mentor and Chief of the Sheriff’s Office, Mike "El Jefe" Peralta. Mapstone’s main job is to uncover and solve the cold cases that history has left open and wanting. He has gotten himself a new girlfriend and is starting to mentally get back into being a Deputy in the Department. Life is good, until he crosses paths with a few young hoods while coming home from a Phoenix Coyotes game with the Peraltas and Lindsey Adams, his new gal friend. He chases one of the thugs into an abandoned warehouse and finds two bodies in a walled up old building that is falling into ruins. This opens up a quagmire full of mystery involving one of the West’s largest and most famous families, the Cattle Baron Yarnells, who built a small cattle ranch into a Fortune 500 company. One thing leads to another as is most often the case with unsolved murders and, pretty soon, Mapstone is fully involved and trying to save several peoples’ lives. Great little thriller/mystery that will leave you wanting more and more, as the other book by Talton I read did.

Talton is a 4th generation Arizonan and he paints the Sonoran Desert of his home state with a masterful brush and blue sky Phoenix clarity. He has written now five books in this series and each one of them is thoroughly enjoyable. Get hold of Arizona Dreams and this newest one, Cactus Heart, and find yourself cheering on this young detective as he solves life mysteries for himself and for the community.

This story is the "prequel" to the David Mapstone, History Professor/Special Assistant to the Sheriff’s Office mysteries that take place in and around the Phoenix area. It is the starter to the rest of the books that he has already put out with Mapstone as the central character, although it does stand alone, and it will make the reader want to read more of Talton’s works if they have not already done so.