Incensed

It’s San Francisco in the 1970s, and a hippie is on the run from both the FBI and some nasty leftists in this mystery.

Young Fred Arnold, a world-class doofus, is at Family Day at the Lawrence Weapons Lab in the Bay Area when he wanders into the wrong building. A fire breaks out, and he sees a “ferret-faced” guy running away with some papers. The man drops a notebook; Fred picks it up; and the chase is on. Now the FBI is on the case, and Fred—with the help of his girlfriend, Rhonda, and his friend Paul Kendzierski—has to find the actual bad guys to clear his name. Fred and Paul flee to a commune up north and enlist the help of an older man named Red. The two protagonists eventually return to San Francisco, with Fred in disguise (he’s shorn off his beard, and his hair is now short), and set about luring the usual suspects, who include Maoists and Trotskyites, sworn enemies. The clever pair use Fred and the notebook (actually a fake notebook) as bait. The real culprits belong to a revolutionary outfit called the Summer Soldiers. They take Fred and Rhonda prisoner, and the plan is to hijack a plane to fly them all to Cuba. There is one cute fillip at the end. This is a very engaging mystery. Kerns revels in his vibrant characters and the ambiance of Haight-Ashbury, the Summer of Love, and all that. Besides love, aromas of patchouli and marijuana are in the air (Fred works part time in an incense factory, hence the novel’s title). Fred has a flair, or maybe it is just a tic, for making up amusing doggerel when he is happy or scared. A sample: “Summer Soldiers on the go / Plotting now to start the show / Got my pop gun—that thing’s hot / I just hope I don’t get shot.”

An entertaining caper with a vivid California setting.