Camden-sur-Mer is the prettiest, poshest, most begardened and beservanted retirement community in the vicinity of El Paso. It's certainly nicer than nearby, overregimented Golden Years, an establishment that old friends and Camden residents Caledonia Wingate (large, domineering) and Angela Benbow (tiny, persistent) have dubbed (for its deleterious effect on its inmates) the Geezer Factory. Following several defections from the latter to Camden- sur-Mer, the sleuthing buddies notice a crime wave beginning in the form of a defenestration and then a death-by-hammer. Geriatric favorite Lieutenant Martinez allows Cal and Angie to investigate with a benign lack of professionalism we haven't seen since Attorney-at-Law Carson Drew handed daughter Nancy the keys to the roadster. Camden comings and goings are collated, and the plot turns out to hang on a cat, a dog, and a takeout pizza. The murderer's motive involves corruption and personal gain, but it's nothing Caledonia can't handle between naps. This seventh in a seemingly popular series (Ho-Ho Homicide, 1995, etc.) pursues the cozy whodunit to its ultimate conclusion: A meaningless puzzle in an intensely constricted, rather airless environment. It would require the comic skills of a P.G. Wodehouse to give this series some salutary life, and such skills are not evident here.
Pub Date: July 24, 1996
ISBN: 1-55611-497-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Donald Fine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that...
Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.
Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.Pub Date: May 20, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
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