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Summary
Summary
While fishing, Carl and Hazel Wilcox hear a scream, a shot--and then find a body. That makes this whodunit personal, and as his new wife has shown, Mrs. Carl Wilcox also knows a thing or two about investigation. . . .
Author Notes
Harold Adams was born in Clark, South Dakota in 1923. He worked at the Minnesota Charities Review Council and the Better Business Bureau. He wrote the Carl Wilcox Mystery series, The Thief Who Stole Heaven, When Rich Men Die, and The Fourth of July Wake. He won the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award and a Minnesota Book Award for The Man Who Was Taller than God. He died on April 4, 2014 at age of 91.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
"Changes on the St. Croix, when you're paddling with a slow current, are so gradual you seem at times to be motionless." So proclaims Carl Wilcox, protagonist of this deceptively simple new novel by Adams (winner of a Shamus for The Man Who Was Taller than God), as he canoes down the river. "As you round a long bend, an entirely fresh view slowly opens up." Just so, the narrative of Adams's solid whodunit allows the meandering course of its Depression-era sleuth to slowly unfurl unexpected plot twists. A drifter and sign painter, Carl is honeymooning in Minnesota with his new wife, Hazel (the librarian he courted in 1998's No Badge, No Gun), when they are confronted by the deaths of two young men: a talented musician whose body the couple finds after it falls from a cliff; and a failed farmer whose apparent suicide is questioned by his wealthy, loving grandfather. Knowing Carl's reputation as a detective, the local mayor offers him a few dollars to snoop around. Then the grieving grandfather ups the ante to $2000Äa serious nest egg, given the general shortage of work and cash. So Carl and Hazel begin paddling along, talking with anyone and everyone, until they arrive at a solution to the problems at hand. Although Wilcox's bed-hopping has been slowed down by marriage, sex still plays an active role in the series. The dead musician was one of many young men who pursued a sleek blonde named Kat BaconÄand Carmen Pryke, the wife of the man who killed himself, is another hot number. Period details about cars, clothes, food and social customs are, as usual, so sharp that the rambling narration and the novel's less-than-surprising conclusions don't spoil the pleasure. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Through 15 novels, Adams' Carl Wilcox series has maintained a remarkably high standard of quality yet has never received the widespread recognition it deserves. Perhaps the historical setting, vivid though it is--the Mountain Plains during the Dust Bowl--or the relative lack of violent action have kept Adams a hidden treasure, but the time has come for that to change. Wilcox is a cowboy and a hobo, an ex-con with an uncanny ability to ask the right questions. In this sixteenth outing, he has just married his sweetheart, Hazel, and they are camping in Minnesota for their honeymoon. During their first night out, a man is murdered near their campsite, and Wilcox volunteers to help the local sheriff solve the case. With the encouragement of the town's mayor, the sheriff reluctantly agrees. Wilcox, ably assisted by the equally astute Hazel, discovers that the recent murder may be tied to an earlier suicide. Although the ending is a bit of a letdown, this is a fine introduction to the best series many mystery fans have never read. --George Needham
Kirkus Review
Just because Carl Wilcox is married doesn't mean he's decided to settle down. For one thing, the itinerant sign-painter and his librarian bride Hazel (No Badge, No Gun, 1998) are honeymooning in true Depression-era style, camping out on the shores of Minnesota's St. Croix River. For another, their idyll is shattered by the sounds of a gunshot and a scream that send both of them springing out of their sleeping bags just in time for Carl to pull a body that's gone over a nearby cliff from the railroad tracks right before an oncoming train would have made identification a crapshoot. When the doctor from local Indeville announces that Francis Linklater doesn't have any bullet wounds, Carl wonders how he died--and how his death is connected to the suspicious suicide of failed farmer Nate Pryke earlier that year. The obvious connections are Nate's merry widow Carmen, who's rumored to have scattered her favors broadcast, and neighboring siren Kat Bacon, who seems to have led on every member of Link's band. But since Carl can't see any of the young people as a killer, his compass flutters wildly from one improbable suspect to the next before finally coming to rest on the most unlikely one of all. Adams's 1930s American Gothic is as gauntly effective as ever, and Carl's bride makes a charming sidekick, but their nuptial case is no more than a tangle of loose ends. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Series hero Carl Wilcox and new wife Hazel tackle a murder mystery together after they discover a body near their fishing spot. A dependable, nicely plotted, Depression-era historical. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
