Harold Adams (1) (1923–2014)

Carl Wilcox is back in his hometown of Corden, South Dakota, where his reputation is not exalted. His old man's had a stroke and is off to California for a rest cure, so Carl's in charge of the family hotel -- just in time for the tenth reunion of Corden High School's class of 1924. That was the only year in history that Corden had a winning football team. In fact, the team went undefeated that season, which was the high-water mark for most of the athletes. Due to the Depression, their lives show more since then haven't been much to write home about.But one reunion event does strike sparks -- the bizarre murder of Harmon "Heart" Turner, star quarterback and class Casanova. He's found dead in the hotel shower with a ball bearing lodged in his skull -- not too deep, but deep enough to kill. The harrowing events that follow, compel Carl Wilcox to once again assume the role of reluctant detective. show less

First Line: It was hot in Jonesville just before noon as I was finishing up a window sign and looking forward to getting out of the sun and into a café, when these two characters came around and moved close, watching me.

Those two characters just happen to be the local pastor and his nephew, and they'd like him to check into the rape and murder of the pastor's niece. Carl Wilcox, ex-con, part-time bum, and itinerant sign painter is beginning to get a reputation in small town South Dakota for show more being able to solve crimes. Since this is the Depression, Carl can't afford to pass up the money, even though he's not trained as a private investigator:

"How'd you get into detecting?"

"Fell in. Being an ex-con, I was a suspect in anything that went wrong wherever I went for a few years, and I started figuring out who done it a couple of times when it kept me from getting stuck, and then one day Corden needed a temporary cop the worst way, and as somebody said, they got the worst kind. That sort of set up my bona fides, and I've been milking it ever since."

While Wilcox paints signs and woos the local school teacher, his investigative methods mainly consist of questioning every person he can think of and seeing what turns up. What turns up are several prime suspects, and Carl soon has to narrow down the list.

Adams has a lean comfortable writing style that drew me right in. It's a deceptively simple style because whenever I stopped to ponder what I'd read, I would realize that I'd gleaned much more than I thought was there.

Even though this is the fifteenth book in the Carl Wilcox series, I didn't feel lost. This book stands very well on its own, but it's so good-- and doesn't have the usual P.I. clichés-- that I fully intend to look up other books in the series. show less

En ex-con goes home to a little town shimmering in the heat in South Dakota and ends up playing detective to a triple murder. I liked the atmosphere and the casual tough-guy rhetoric, and the plot was just complicated enough to be interesting. But what I really liked was the sense of heat and itch of hay and small-town life the writer evokes..

What I like best about this book is its setting - although Adams calls it Aquatown, anyone with a passing acquaintance with South Dakota knows that the novel's setting is Watertown. Who would think that such a classic noir mystery would have such a setting? Nevertheless, this book is noir at its best - sly dialogue, shady characters, tough broads and a smart, under-appreciated protagonist. I love the Nordic surnames, the descriptions of the dry plains, the hard-scrabble townspeople, the show more surprise sophistication, the just-below-the-surface sensuality, the world-weary cops. This book was, deservedly, nominated for a Shamus. I'll read every book in the series that I can find. Five stars! show less