Deadly Illusions
By Chester D. Campbell
Published by
Durban House Publishing Company, Inc.
Paperback, 261 Pages
ISBN 1-930754-65-5
Mystery/ Private Eye
Principal setting: Nashville, Tennessee
Tommy and Tuppence. Nick and Nora Charles. Now Chester Campbell's husband-and-wife detective team Greg and Jill McKenzie seem poised to take their place alongside the gumshoe spouses of old. There are, of course, considerable differences. Instead of London or New York, the McKenzies tackle crime in Nashville, Tennessee. They are also considerably older than the "bright young things" that occupy center stage in the Christie and Hammet novels.
Greg McKenzie is of an age when scanning a restaurant menu for senior's discounts is more natural than slipping a 9mm automatic into his belt, but he's just as ready for action as any other fictional shamus. A former investigator with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations followed by a stint in the Nashville DA's office he brings experience and professional credentials to the fledgling McKenzie Detective Agency. Wife, Jill, contributes an adventurous spirit, the ability to ferry them from place to place in her Cessna 172, and some remarkable feats of marksmanship.
Unlike most other fictional private detectives, the McKenzies are ardent churchgoers. Still, this doesn't mean that "Deadly Illusions" belongs on the shelf among the Christian novels. The religious content is pretty much limited to the heads of the McKenzie Detective Agency taking their places in a pew come Sunday morning and recruiting fellow parishioners as occasional operatives.
In "Deadly Illusions," the detective duo find themselves on the trail of a missing client, a woman who has engaged them to investigate her husband's mysterious past. After leaving a panicky message on the McKenzie's answering machine, the client suddenly disappears. Fearing the worst, the McKenzies begin to probe into the background of the woman's violent and secretive spouse. As the investigation progresses, Greg and Jill find themselves the targets of break-ins, vandalism, and threats. There may even be ties between their own investigation and the recent assassination of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, a crime that has shocked Nashville. And it's very likely that the McKenzies own lives are in danger of being terminated with extreme prejudice.
An enjoyable, well-written yarn, a couple of engaging characters and an author who apparently knows the Nashville locale and the art of criminal investigation well, "Deadly Illusions" has a lot to offer fans of mysteries and soft-boiled private eye yarns. This is Campbell's third book featuring the private eye duo, and it would be extremely disappointing if it were to be the last. A good, well-paced read with plenty of twists and turns to hold the reader's interest.
