Nostalgia City Mysteries

Mark S. Bacon

Tag Archives: murder

7:02 am - October 23, 2013 -

Tahoe beauty hides motives, murder

Tahoe Chase
by Todd Borg
Thriller Press   351 pages
Kindle $3.99  Trade paperback $15.26

 

Someone is killing people around Lake Tahoe.  And the chase is on.

In Tahoe Chase, PI Owen McKenna is hired by Joe Rorvik to find out who tried to kill his wife by pushing her off the deck of their mountain home.  Rorvik is an elderly Olympic skiing medalist who doesn’t believe the police reports that say his wife’s fall was an accident.   McKenna is sympathetic, but Rorvik is at a loss to name anyone who might even remotely want to hurt his wife.

Suspects are initially scarce save for a 6-foot, 3-inch, 220-pound knife-throwing wife abuser who seems intent on not only getting McKenna off his trail, but off the planet.   Before long, a murder, possibly related to the assault on Rorvik’s wife, puts more emotional strain on McKenna’s 92-year-old client who now regrets ever calling the detective and threatens suicide.

“Everything was wrong, and I was at the epicenter, the cause,” McKenna tells himself.  “Without seeing it coming I had become the new agent of Joe’s misery.”

Later, the Tahoe detective seems to have a better grasp of what’s happening–but it’s only temporary.  In a crucial scene late in the book, he and his cop friend, Diamond Martinez, frantically chase clues and suspects around in their heads until it’s clear neither has a good idea of where the case is going.

Clues are not the only things chased here.  The novel’s title could refer to chases in cars, boats, skis and on foot, all of which add action and suspense throughout the book and keep the plot moving ahead swiftly.  Author Todd Borg’s unusual, quirky–sometimes bizarre–characters add to the complexity of the story, keeping the PI chase fresh and appealing, not to mention puzzling.

McKenna occasionally mentions a previous case and he even borrows a cabin cruiser from a former client.  The detective has lots of previous cases to ponder, if he chooses, as Tahoe Chase is Borg’s 11th Owen McKenna whodunit.  Fans of McKenna will appreciate the ways this case is different from previous novels.  Yet the familiar cast of characters is still here including McKenna’s entomologist girlfriend Street Casey, his Great Dane, Spot, and his law enforcement friends from California and Nevada jurisdictions around the lake.Tahoe Chase

Tahoe Chase, like Borg’s other books, has background subjects, areas of specialization related to suspects or victims and readers gain insight on new topics as they work on the case with McKenna.  In Chase, readers learn details about such diverse topics as skiing and domestic abuse.  In one of his earlier novels–and one of my favorites–Borg took up the topic of autism.  In Tahoe Silence, a young autistic girl is kidnapped and terrorized by a biker gang.  McKenna–and readers–learn valuable lessons about autism delivered in a more sensitive way than you might expect in a PI novel.

Borg’s sensitivity comes through in his books.  McKenna has a code.  Not only does he not use firearms–as a result of a tragic shooting when he was a San Francisco cop–but McKenna treats his girlfriend (as well as most everyone else) with respect and no matter how depressing a case may be, he never gets drunk or beats up on people except in self-defense or defense of others.   This is not to say that McKenna is a schoolboy.  He’s devised ingenious (and sometimes quite painful) ways of dealing with criminals, he sleeps with his girlfriend (although readers never get in bed with them) and he loves a good bottle of wine or a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Along the way to solving a crime, McKenna usually offers simple wisdom in the form of observations or occasionally as advice to friends.  In a scene in Tahoe Silence he finds himself on the losing end of a misunderstanding with his girlfriend.

I suddenly stopped as I remembered the proverb that says when you find that you’re digging yourself into a hole, stop digging.

In Tahoe Chase, while McKenna is talking to Joe Rorvik in Rorvik’s home, he thinks he sees movement outside.  But he’s not certain, so he waits as he thinks to himself:

I’d learned long ago that patience was often rewarded.  Certainly impatience rarely was.

When McKenna and Casey are trying to console a young woman who’s been brutalized and is now facing a daunting journey, McKenna is impressed with his girlfriend’s supportive technique.

Talk only about trivial stuff, and it communicates that you’re worried about the big issues and are afraid to focus on them.  Talk only about the major stuff, and it clutters the traveler’s mind with too many concerns. Strike a medium balance, and the person knows that you understand the scope of the mission, but you are still relaxed about it.  The relaxed manner telegraphs confidence in the person who is about to embark on the big event.

McKenna’s philosophical observations aren’t always designed to advance the plot, but you get a more clear understanding of the protagonist as a fully developed character.

Meanwhile, back at the Chase, Borg keeps McKenna, Martinez and Rorvik guessing until almost the final scene when the complex plot twists back on itself and the murderer is revealed.   Tahoe Chase is not a sprint but a marathon giving readers cerebral and emotional exercise along the way.  Borg fans will enjoy the chase and eagerly await the ending, and first-timers will want to find the early books in the McKenna series and start following Lake Tahoe’s coolest character.

Hyperlink:

Todd Borg books on Amazon

Categories: New mystery book, Reviews of mystery/suspense books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
12:42 pm - September 18, 2013 -

Short mystery fiction

Block’s John Keller series is a hit

Hit Man
By Lawrence Block
HarperTorch; Reissue edition   2002
Kindle $5.69, paperback $12.76, mass market paperback $7.19
384 pages (mass market paperback)

 

John Keller’s is a sedate existence.  He lives by himself in an apartment on First Avenue in New York City, walks his dog, does crossword puzzles and occasionally flies out of town on business.   When his travels take him to a small town, he frequently wanders about, pondering what it would be like to live in a quaint, out-of-the-way place.  Eventually though, he settles down and does what he’s come to do.  John Keller kills people.

Keller is the creation of Lawrence Block one of the best known and best selling names in crime fiction.  He penned his first story when Eisenhower was in the White House and he’s hardly paused for a breath since.  He’s authored more than 50 books and countless articles and short stories.   He has several book series going; most well-known is the Matt Scudder series.  Scudder, a detective in New York City, is a recovering alcoholic.   Although when the series began Scudder was not recovering, attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are now a big part of the character’s life.Untitled-1

Block has won multiple Edgars for novels and short stories (not to mention a raft of other awards), has written scripts for large and small screens and even posts regularly on his blog.  You can read him online and join his 7,600 followers.

Hit Man is the first in a series of five books: one novel and four story collections.  This book contains 10 closely linked short stories in more or less chronological order.  We’re introduced to Keller and his trade in the first installment and learn a little more about him with each story.  As you might imagine, every story revolves around a particular murder assignment, usually taking place in a different city.

Keller receives his assignments from “the old man” who lives in a large house in White Plains, NY.  Usually Keller visits the White Plains house and has iced tea or lemonade with “Dot” a vaguely sketched, middle aged woman and seemingly one of Keller’s only friends.  He then goes upstairs to find out who his next target is.

Each story stands on its own, often with a delightful twist ending–predictably, linked to how Keller accomplishes his objective.  Rarely does he use a gun; flying out on his assignments pretty much precludes taking a firearm along.  He improvises, and in more than one story, the murder weapon is uniquely tailored to the circumstances or the victim.  This is particularly true in “Dogs Walked, Plants Watered”  where Keller’s weapon of choice is ingenious and amusing.

Unlike the Scudder series, the Keller stories are third person but with Keller himself as the only point-of-view character, so we experience the stories solely through his eyes and thoughts.  We  don’t learn much about his private life–such as it is–in any one story.  In several of the stories we see him with Andria, his dog sitter who becomes his short-lived, sleep-in girlfriend.  She discerns what he does for a living and eventually leaves–not necessarily because Keller is a hit man–and takes the dog with her.

Many of the stories contain Keller’s mundane digressions–having to do with stamp collecting, pets or small-town life–that draw you temporarily into Keller’s quiet reveries.  “…you’ve always got this fantasy living the good life in Elephant, Montana,” a girlfriend tells him once.  “Every place you go you dream up a life to go with it.”  But just when Keller’s daydreams lull you into thinking you’re reading introspective chic lit, he strangles an unsuspecting victim and catches a plane home.

“Keller’s Therapy,” the third story in the book, about his relationship with his psychologist, earned Block an Edgar Award.  My favorite story is “Keller on the Spot,” which sees him save someone from death, then form an unusual relationship with his assigned target.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Keller is not the slick assassin dressed in black, bristling with exotic weapons who dispassionately dispatches his victims.  Morality is an underlying theme for the stories.  Keller’s code prohibits him from petty larceny unrelated to an assignment and he occasionally contemplates the ramifications of his murderous acts.  But ultimately, although lacking in dash, he performs the deadly rites he’s been hired to do.  Afterall, change one vowel in his name and you spell his occupation.

Hyperlink

Lawrence Block’s blog

Categories: New mystery book, printed books, Reviews of mystery/suspense books Tags: , , , , , , , ,