BUMP AND RUN

In Helms’ mystery novel, a grizzled detective investigates the murder of a former football hero.

The year is 1977, and in the small town of Choctaw, North Carolina, the murder of an innocent man by police leads to a race riot that tarnishes the community’s reputation. A Super Bowl win involving local athlete Winlock Savage goes some way toward restoring the town’s good name. Forty-five years later, Savage is long-retired but still a celebrity, so, when he is found gruesomely murdered, the local police force turns to the State Bureau of Investigation’s best agent, Wade “the Blade” Durham, to solve the case. Durham pairs up with local police Chief Roberta “Bobbi” Navarro to look into who may have held a grudge against Savage. The answer, it turns out, is many people—including a gun-wielding jealous girlfriend and those who may have resented Savage’s lawsuit to prevent a ski resort from being built in the town. Things get even more complicated when Durham begins to notice eerie parallels between the ex-football hero’s death and the murder of a young woman over four decades earlier. With a smooth narrative voice (“Despite the gradual westward expansion of high-density cities and towns in the state, there were still pockets isolated by choice; enclaves where family trees resembled French braids”) and enough twists to keep even the most jaded thriller fans on their toes, Helms crafts an engaging narrative with an old-school protagonist who embodies the classic detective (Durham has witty one-liners, an appreciation for attractive women, and killer instincts). The dialogue can occasionally come across as cheesy (“Sorry, Blade. We pulled a hot one”), but Helms effectively builds genuine tension. Serious themes of racism, corruption, power, and sex are deftly woven into the multiple mini-mysteries that pop up under the larger question of who killed Savage, adding depth to an otherwise straightforward procedural.

A smart, twisty thriller featuring a clever detective and all the ingredients of a classic whodunit.