Kirkus Reviews QR Code
CHAIN OF FOOLS by Richard Stevenson

CHAIN OF FOOLS

by Richard Stevenson

Pub Date: Nov. 14th, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14563-2
Publisher: St. Martin's

Let Albany shamus Donald Strachey introduce the Osbornes: ``A distinguished New York State family whose members apparently were trying to kill one another off for reasons of ideology and/or cash.'' A forced sale of the family newspaper has turned the liberal Osbornes—editor Janet, nature writer Eric, crackpot left-wing publisher Dan, and their mother Ruth, clinging to the frayed edge of sanity—against their insurgent conservative wing- -broker Chester, his self-righteous sister June, and their equally stuffy spouses, toadies, and hangers-on. The question is: Which of two buyers to sell the ailing Edensburg Herald to? Eric has already been murdered, and when Janet barely survives an assault by a jet ski—a second episode ends up breaking the foot of Dan's lover, Timmy Callahan—it looks like somebody's trying to rig the election by retiring the liberals and mandating the appointment of more conservatives in their stead. The available replacement candidates: June's son Tidy, a 24-karat twerp; Tidy's brother Tacker, who ran off to the South Seas years ago; and Chester's sociopathic son Craig, now doing hard time in Attica for robbery and murder. Eventually, Don's investigation takes him to Attica—where Craig tells a wild tale that makes Don regard the Osborne clan even more suspiciously. Stevenson's sixth (Shock to the System, 1995, etc.) manages to bring new urgency to the crazy-family scenario by loading the Osborne branches with the rottenest fruit imaginable. They're enough to make you pack Uzis and hand grenades for your next family reunion.