Steve Liskow, Before You Accuse Me

 

Steve Liskow, Before You Accuse Me
© 2018 Stephen Liskow
ISBN 978-198351-6092

Chris Guthrie, who was a Detroit cop before a horrible injury forced him out of the PD, is now a PI.  And he receives a phone call from a lawyer in Connecticut.  His ex-wife Sarah (they divorced a decade prior; a photographer, is now the director of the fine arts department at Wesleyan University.  She has remarried to a high-priced surgeon, Sam Henderson.  The lawyer tells Guthrie that the Hendersons have asked him to ask Guthrie to come to Connecticut to investigate the death—the murder—of Frederika ,(Rika) Holmstadt a financial adviser (with whom Sam has been getting investment advice and with whom he had been an affair—making him a suspect.  And,, as it transpires, Holmstadt had been stealing from her clients.   It doesn’t help that the gun the Hendersons had has, uh, disappeared Guthrie and Megan Traine (a computer wizard, talented keyboard player, and Guthrie’s long-time companion have come to Connecticut to see if they can find evidence exonerating Sam.

The Hendersons have 3 kids—Clara and Ike from Sam’s first first marriage and Max together.

That’s the setup, and the relationships between the adults are strained.  The kids(Max, the youngest; Ike, just entering high school and very much wanting to make the basketball team; and Clara, a budding pianist who really bonds with Meg are a delight (although a sub-plot, it’s fairly important to the story).  The interactions between the local cops and Chris & Meg work effectively.  And that’s all I’m going to say about the plot.

I will say this:  Before You Accuse Me is the best mystery I have read this year—and the best one I read last year.  In addition to being a stellar mystery, it is a fine study of the relationships between the adults and also the kids.  I’ very glad I have more opportunities  to soend time with Guthrie and Traine.

 Frederic Brown, Night of the Japperwock

I just finished re-reading Frederic Brown's masterpiece Night of the Jabberwock (a masterpiece  in my opinion, anyway).  Of course, almost any tale that makes good use of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" is likely to be worth your time.  If you aren't familiar with the plot, the potted version is that the owner (Doc Stroger) of a small Illinois town newspaper receives a late-night visitor, Yehudi Smith.  Smith claims to be a member of an exclusive society, the Vorpal Blades*.  And he's there to engage Stroger in a midnight incursion into a house on the outskirts of town.  He wants Stroger to accompany him, and Stroger, who is a devotee of the "Alice" stories agrees.  Surrounding that, we have the tribulations of running a small-town newspaper and ruthless bank robbers.  Also dead bodies in the trunk of a car.  A poisoning. And much more.  Despite the centrality of the "Alice" stories, I would not call this a cozy mystery--the body count is somewhat too high for that.  I don't know how, exactly,  to categorize it.  (I will say that I don't understand how Stroger can function, given the quantity of whisky he  ingests over the course of the night--the ability of anyone to function after drinking that much whisky would be beyond me, anyway.  I will also suggest that, if you come across a tiny bottle with a label "Drink Me" on it, you abstain.)

I would strongly recommend that, if you have not read Night of the Jabberwock, you do so.  And if you have read it, re-reading it would be a treat. This might be a good time.

*I would join the Vorpal Blades instantly if I had the chance.