The
Fractal Murders
By Mark Cohen
Muddy Gap Press
Mystery
2002
IBSN: 0-971-18986-0-X
282 pages
$13.95 US
Setting: Nederland, Colorado
Pepper Keane has led an interesting life. After a stint as a lawyer in the
Marines, he went into a lucrative private practice for a number of years. This
enabled him to save enough money to retire to Nederland, Colorado, and satisfy
his lifelong dream to become a private investigator. Bouts of depression
plagued Pepper since childhood. They were the reason he couldn't make the
Marines a career as he had first planned. The medication he took for his
depression as well as his strenuous exercise regime helped, but Pepper had
become resigned to live with his infliction.
Pepper never married. While he felt his life lacked the fulfillment of a
partner, he'd become content to accept fate until he met a beautiful mathematics
professor, Jayne Smyers, who wished to avail herself of his detective services.
The tall, slender brunette, filled out in all the right places, caught
Pepper's eye the first time he came into her office at the University of
Colorado. What she had to say set him back a bit, but the more he
listened, and later became involved, he began to agree with her.
On the surface, the three deaths had nothing in common. Paul Fontaine, a
fifty-five year old professor of mathematics at Whitman College in Walla Walla,
Washington had been shot during a botched robbery. Carolyn Chang, a
thirty-five year old associate professor of mathematics at the University of
Nebraska in Lincoln, was sexually assaulted and her body dumped north of
Manhattan, Kansas. The third victim, Donald Underwood, a thirty-seven year
old associate professor of mathematics at Harvard, hung himself in his townhouse
in Boston.
How could Jayne feel those three deaths threatened her in any way? In
spite of the obvious differences, Jayne had a strong premonition things were not
the way they seemed. Before she contacted Pepper, she called the FBI and
insisted they conduct an investigation. While the FBI acted in a
consolatory manner, they only went through the motions of carrying out an
investigation then closed the case. Frustrated, Jayne called Pepper to
come down from his mountain hideaway to help.
Before he solved the case, Pepper traveled to all parts of the country. He
even went deep into the southwest to track down a possible lead in a sidewinder
infested desert in Arizona. From the rainy Northwest to old beantown itself, he
probed and questioned possible witnesses. In the end, he discovered the
answer right where he started from.
THE FRACTAL MURDERS takes you into every aspect of Pepper Keane's life. You
learn about his struggles and his triumphs. You become enthralled with his
dogs, Buck and Wheat, both saved by Pepper just before they were to be put down.
Along with the fascinating mystery story, the reader is made aware of the
intricacies of higher mathematics. There's even a bit of philosophy thrown
in for good measure. I found myself caught up in trying to solve the
puzzle. How could such different deaths be related?
--Four diet cokes out of five
Doris Pannell GWN Online book reviewer
Imdpann@aol.com
7/15/2002
Dead
North
by Sue Henry
Avon Mystery
May 2002
ISBN 0-380-81684-9
352 pages
Setting: The Alaskan Highway
$6.00 US
Alaskan Jesse Arnold thought that maybe things were looking up. After a
lot of hard work, the ashes and debris that were once her cabin before an
arsonist torched it were cleared away. Now all she had to do was wait
until the weather dried so they could start putting in the basement. Jessie
is thrilled when her friend and contractor Vic Prentice offers her the
"job" of flying down to Idaho and picking up his brand new motor home.
He wants someone familiar with the Alaskan Highway to bring it safely
home. It would be the perfect way to give her a chance for a relaxing
adventure, away from the reminder of her problems.
While she's setting out for her adventure, Patrick Cutler is running for his
life. Accused of murdering his own mother, Patrick has decided to
hitchhike up to Alaska, where an old friend lives. His policeman
stepfather claims that Patrick beat his mother to death with a baseball bat,
then attacked him. When asked, the next door neighbor, an older gentleman
who has heard many of the married couple's late night fights and witnessed the
bruises after Patrick's attempted interventions, suggests that the police look
to the stepfather and themselves for the real cause of her death.
Eventually Patrick meets up with Jesse, and another lady driving her motor home
up the Alaskan Highway, Maxie McNab. They decide to help him, despite his
reluctance to talk. This decision will place them in peril because someone
is following Patrick and he isn't afraid to kill anyone who gets in his way.
The setting is excellently drawn. Sue Henry captures the scenery of the
journey, making us feel almost like fellow tourists. It does slow down the
story a little in the beginning, but the descriptions are actually well worth
it, and the pace near the end more than makes up for the slower start. I
like Jesse Arnold as a character. She races and trains sled dogs, which
makes for an interesting character twist. She has a true enjoyment for the
outdoors and knowledge of her surroundings which makes the setting even more
enjoyable. She brings her lead dog Tank along for the ride, and he is just
as important a character as his mistress. Maxie McNab, a retired widow who
has decided to travel in her own motor home, is a delightful combination of
common sense and gutsiness that often steals the scene without meaning to.
This is Sue Henry's seventh Alaska mystery, and her eighth, "Cold
Company," is due out in June. This book is a must read for people who
love Alaska or for people who have secretly wished they could set out alone in a
motor home and travel. After this adventure I feel like I've been through
Fort Steele, taken a dip in Laird Hot Springs, and very nearly didn't make it
through this gripping adventure to tell the tale.
four cloaks out of five
--Cindy Lynn Speer, Gotta Write Book Reviewer
Spiral
By Denise Turney
Chistell Publishing
Mystery
August 2002
http://www.chistell.com
280 pages
ISBN 0966353927
Setting: Memphis, TN, 1938 - 1970's
Several little girls are missing around Memphis. Unfortunately, the
citizens of Greasy Plank are the first to be questioned by the police, for
no better reason than the color of their skin. The first disappearance we
read about happens in 1938, and several of the characters were witness to the
child either being kidnapped or dumped, but no one comes forward for fear of
getting the blame for the crime. Years pass and more little girls
disappear. Rumors point toward Ramsey Armstrong, an odd man who is not
very sociable. Finally, the police think they might have a suspect, a
young man named Richard Tilson, who we are told right away is innocent. Is
he? Who is responsible for the disappearance of these children and will
the jury be able to see past ingrained prejudices to the truth?
This book is being advertised as a page turning thriller. It isn't. For
good chunks of the book, the murders are peripheral, mentioned only in passing.
It is a very well detailed study of how the murders affect the people of
Greasy Plank, focusing on two families in particular, the Tilsons, and the
Armstrongs. The Tilsons are the most powerful family in their community
and run the only grocery store in town. They are successful, and everyone,
especially the matriarch of the family, the extremely opinionated Tammy, work
very hard. The Armstrongs come into focus primarily because Tammy has to deal
with them. Her oldest son, David, has fallen in love with their Margaret,
and they intend to marry. Tammy is less than thrilled, because she thinks
that Ramsey is strange, and doesn't want bad blood brought into her family.
We also get close to the twins, Janice and Melinda. We focus on how
these people grow and how they d! eal with the issues of their day. Time passes
during the course of the book and we see them deal with everyday things such as
getting married and going to dances, as well as with the accusations and rumors
about who is responsible. We watch the events of their lives, and the
dialogue, their actions, make these people feel very real, very close to us.
I thought the dialogue was a definite strong point, homey, and very
honest. There are hard truths faced in this book, but those hard truths
are more about the way these people live during a time of great bigotry, more
than hard truths about the deaths of children.
If you are looking for a well drawn family drama, then this book will be more to
your taste. Ms. Turney is a fine writer who has won many awards and
definitely shows an amazing ability for characterization and setting in this
book.
Three out of Five trench coats
--Cindy Lynn Speer, GWN Book Reviewer
The
Night Men
Snyder, Keith
Walker and Company
Mystery
Hard Cover
November 2001
www.walkerbooks.com
320
$23.95 US
ISBN 0-8027-3370-0
Setting. New York
Jason Keltner tries to be a good friend. This is why he ends up going out
in the middle of the night to his friend's music store, which has been broken
into and vandalized. He agrees to become sort of a night watchman for a
few days, in case the vandals return. His friend, Zeb, is gay, and
fears that this might be a hate motivated crime, so he asks his Jason to find
out who did it.
This is not the first time he has acted as night watchman. This book is
actually three stories in one. The first focuses on Jason's troubled
childhood and how he meets Roberto, who comes to New York in the present day to
help Zeb and Jason out. This is much more a coming of age story than an
adventure. Jason's troubles with his parents and his past reflect on the
present story. It also tells how he and Roberto kept watch over Roberto's
house, looking to see if the people who painted a swastika on it return. The
third story features excerpts from "The Night Men," a book that
Roberto and Jason read together as teens and a story I would not mind reading
more of. The only flaws with the nested story of Jason's youth is that it
remains unfinished. We want to know how Jason gets out of the situation he
finds himself in, but answers never come. The main story is filled with
memorable characters, but is not really that much of a myst! ery.
This is the fourth book in the series, and Snyder doesn't carry a lot of the
story from one book to another. There are questions about who Jason is in
relationship to the people and places around him that are not answered in
context, and are probably key to better understanding the story. Jason is
a very round character, charming because he's very internal and has a hard time
expressing himself, smart, and a talented musician. The friendship between
him and Roberto is wonderful, we watch the characters grow as teens, and see the
resulting present day men. Robert helps him learn to express himself
better, he helps Robert break out of the rut his life had become to find a new
direction for his life.
More about the power of friendship than a mystery, this book is an interesting
and powerful read. I really enjoyed it.
4 out of 5 stars
--Cindy Lynn Speer, Gotta Write Book Reviewer
6/18/2001
The
Survivors Club
By Lisa Gardner
Bantam
Mystery
Hard Cover
May 2002
http://www.bantamdell.com
358 pages
$23.95
ISBN 0-553-80251-8
Setting. Providence, Rhode Island
The Survivors club was started by Jillian Hayes when her sister was brutally
raped and murdered, and she herself attacked by the College Hill Rapist. It
includes his two other victims, Carol Rosen and Meg Pesaturo. The three banded
together, putting pressure on the police, looking for clues of their own. When
Eddie Como is arrested and charged, they feel vindicated. On the morning of the
trail, Eddie Como is assassinated, then the gunman himself is killed. The only
suspects are the members of The Survivors club - until another rape and murder,
all fitting the same MO occurs. Is it a copy cat? An accomplice? Detective
Sergeant Roan Griffin of the State Police and Detective Fitzpatrick of the
Providence police must go back over every lead, go over every angle before the
College Hill Rapist strikes again.
I felt that the concept of this book was very clever. All of the main
characters, even Griffin, are victims in their own way, but trying to make
themselves into survivors. Each character is well drawn, and the horror of the
attacks is very real, very terrifying. The aftermath and how it affects them,
how they try and go on with their lives, try to take control is as admirable as
it is heartbreaking. The relationships between the women and their families are
also very good. In some ways, the reality of this characterization, which makes
you feel keenly for them, makes the real life crime and every woman’s fear of
it more horrifying than the actual story.
The pacing of this story is tight...she sort of runs two stories together: the
story of Griffin, and a past case that shattered his life, and the Survivor’s
Club’s own tale. These tales work together, even mesh together in unexpected
and interesting ways. The twists to the story, how things change and develop as
the clues are discovered and unraveled make it hard to put down. Things fit
together very neatly. Roan Griffin is a complex and interesting character, and
makes an interesting focal point for the story. His budding romance with Jillian
is charming. His concerns for the ladies, his own weaknesses that he has to
fight make him relatable.
I felt that this was a very well done thriller. It is clever enough, and
horrifying enough to keep the reader captivated, without creating emotional
distance between the reader and the victims.
Four out of five trench coats
--Cindy Lynn Speer, GWN Book Reviewer
6/10/2002