Phillip DePoy

This is the third entry in DePoy's Fever Devilin series. Fever is an academician, a folklorist who has recently returned to his roots in Appalachian Georgia, partly to undertake a story/song collecting project, and partly for personal reasons he doesn't fully grasp himself. These stories always include a bit of maaaaybe supernatural stuff, and hints of the folk mythology of rural, by which I mean backwoods rural, snake-handling, Georgia. In this instance, two beautiful, beloved, lively young show more girls are killed when their car is inexplicably struck by a train one night. Their aunt, Fever's lady friend Lucinda, does not believe it was a simple accident. WHY did the car stop on the tracks? WHY didn't they just get out when it seems there was plenty of time for them to do so? WHY was the car's engine not running when it was struck by the train? She asks Fever to help, putting him at odds with his old friend, Skidmore Needle, who is now uncomfortably ensconced as Sheriff. Storytelling just doesn't get any better than this; there's mystery, there's myth, there's suspense, there's eeriness, there's romance. I loved it...maybe DePoy's best outing yet. show less

In this third Foggy Moskowitz outing, two Seminole children are looking for their missing mother in 1976 Fry's Bay, Florida. The children, Topalargee and Catsha Tuste-nuggee, are among the most engaging characters I've encountered in a long time. They are kin to Faulkner's "Snopes Indians"; just as dangerous, but less wild because they have always been loved and valued. There is a lot of Indian history and lore tucked into the fast-paced narrative as Foggy takes any opportunity to correct show more stupid white people's prejudices and misunderstandings.
I love this series. Foggy's wise-guy wit tempered with true compassion is exactly the spoonful of sugar needed to make his medicine go down. I do think DePoy added one too many layers of complication to the story line in this one, and I had to re-read the last 15 pages or so to get what that last bit was all about. By then, the main story line had been resolved, i.e. the children were safely reunited with their mother and the bad guys were all on ice so I was a bit puzzled by this extra stuff. But I hope there will be a lot more adventures for Foggy, John Horse, Maggie Redhawk and the rest of the "tribe". Extra points for historical references that I "got" because I have read some non-fiction recently including Our Land Before We Die and Killers of the Flower Moon. show less

Reading Phillip DePoy's "Too Easy" in one day was just too easy! I'm a fan of Southern fiction anyway, but DePoy is special -- a real original. I love his quirky, offbeat characters; his off-the-wall plotting; and his oddball humor and clever use of literary allusions. He always manages to work in some folklore, often in the oddest of ways. And this one was set partly in my favorite city -- Savannah, GA -- and nearby Tybee Island, which is special to me.

This time Atlanta-based PI Flap show more Tucker's best friend, Dally, sends him searching for a mysterious woman and two good ol' boys who disappeared in the wake of a nasty banker's untimely death. The belief is that they are hiding out near Savannah, on Tybee Island. While searching, another body turns up along the way.

Yes, parts were a bit implausible, but that was OK. It was a rollicking fun read with some food for thought along the way, a nice break from the darker mysteries I've been reading lately. And I didn't figure out how the banker really died until DePoy was ready for the characters to let me in on the secret.

The copy I read was in a Mystery Guild volume, "Easy Does It", containing the first two Flap Tucker mysteries. It's good to pair them because near the start of this second story comes a rather strong "spoiler" for the first book. (In his second series, about Fever Devilin, he became much more subtle about working in material from earlier books.) show less

When we left Foggy Moskowitz of Child Protective Services in Cold Florida, he'd been through some stuff, and had learned to beware Seminole mystics bearing tea...among other things. Now, he has a 14-year-old hitgirl named Lena on his hands, and neither of them know what they're getting into when they set out to find her sister and infant niece. More preposterous shenanigans, red herrings and switcheroos than you can shake a fishpole at...just a lot of fun to read.
June 2020