Whodunit?

I owe a debt of literary gratitude to Edward Stratemeyer, aka Franklin W. Dixon, author of the Hardy Boys books; I devoured the entire series before my voice changed. From there it was but a small jump to the wonderfully high-camp Shell Scott mysteries of Richard Prather, the laid back Travis McGee novels of John D. McDonald, the noir musings of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Summer would find me on the beach at Ocean City or the north shore of Prince Edward Island, a stack of paperbacks in hand. Thirty-some summers later, this remains a favorite pastime, one that I recommend highly. So, to launch this new column, here are a few of Summer 2000's best mysteries.

REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY

Three from old friends

Detroit sleuth Amos Walker returns in Loren Estleman's A Smile on the Face of the Tiger, the 14th novel in the popular series. A simple missing persons case finds Walker tracking down aging Eugene Booth, a missing pulp novelist whose work was wildly controversial and popular in the 1950s. Apparently someone does not want those particular ghosts stirred up, however; Booth turns up dead and Walker finds himself hustling to stay one step ahead of the killer. As in the previous Walker novels, the voice is first person, evocative of the gritty noir mysteries to which he pays homage. Estleman's loyal cadre of fans, as well as devotees of Mickey Spillane and Max Shulman, will find lots to like in Walker's latest outing.


A few hundred miles east of Walker's Motor City stomping grounds, Cleveland PI Milan Jacovich plies his trade in Les Roberts's latest mystery, Indian Sign. Returning home one evening, Jacovich spies an elderly Native American braving the cold on a park bench across the street. Scant hours later, the man is found stabbed to death, dragging Jacovich headfirst into a case of kidnapping, baby selling, and murder. Indian Sign is the 11th Jacovich novel, as intelligently written and clever as those that preceded it; the likeable middle-aged sleuth is possessed of a biting sense of humor, as well as a marvelously self-deprecating awareness of the infirmities of advancing age.


The Twin Cities of Minnesota is the setting for Tami Hoag's latest, Dust to Dust. Gritty Sam Kovac and his wisecracking distaff partner Nikki Liska find themselves unconvinced by the conflicting clues surrounding the presumed suicide of Internal Affairs cop Andy Fallon. Deeper investigation leads the pair into the seamy underbelly of Minneapolis (I've always wanted to use "seamy underbelly" in print) in search of a cross-dressing tattletale who may hold the key to the case. Deftly weaving elements of mystery, romance, and terror, Hoag holds the reader in a death grip in her latest tingly page-turner.


Tip of the Icepick

A female mystery novelist was something of an anomaly in the 1940s and '50s, particularly one who wrote in the first person like the best of the hard-boiled detective writers. Mabel Seeley, all but forgotten these days, was one of the early pioneer women of the genre. Over the course of 16 years she wrote seven mysteries; The Whistling Shadow, published in 1954, was the last. Now a small press in Minnesota, where Seeley's mysteries were set, is reissuing these classics in handsome new hardcovers. In The Whistling Shadow Minnesota widow Gail Kiscadden has just buried her son. She now shares her home with her disagreeable daughter-in-law and her newborn grandson, fully expecting to live a quiet and normal, if somewhat cheerless, life. Then disaster strikes: The baby is kidnapped and held for ransom, and Gail must draw upon all her resources to get to the bottom of the crime. The Whistling Shadow is surprisingly contemporary in writing style, conversational, and easy to read. Mabel Seeley was deservedly popular in her day; it appears her day is coming again.


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