This complex, tightly compressed novel – only a little over two hundred pages – grips the reader’s attention from the start and holds it. The two protagonists, Turner Hahn and his partner Frank Morales, are overworked homicide detectives; Hahn is the narrator. Their caseload includes multiple and largely unconnected murders, requiring investigations that proceed in different directions. These cases seem to represent a realistic cross-section of the demands on big-city homicide investigators - and they don’t all end neatly, nor do they all receive the same attention. I found that highly credible.
The story opens when Hahn and Morales are called in when an unpleasant and universally-disliked physics professor is found in an apparently inaccessible computer room with his throat cut. In an unrelated case, a girl is brutally stabbed to death – and the chief suspect, her unfaithful boyfriend, is also found dead. A psychopathic gangster who seems to consider himself bullet-proof also demands the pair’s attention. And there’s a trigger-happy gang of jewel thieves… The reader is occasionally a little confused, but so – inevitably – are the two detectives.
Despite a few typing errors and a few awkward sentences, and despite the lack of conviction about aspects of physics, I enjoyed this novel greatly. The blemishes didn’t distract me. The characters are entertaining, even though Hahn seems a little too good to be true. (Why does so attractive, competent, rich, show more well-read and successful a man have such difficulties in his love life?!) The narrative voice – Hahn’s – is witty, recalling Chandler’s Marlowe and Hammett’s Spade in its general tone, but quite distinctive nevertheless. The central case – the murdered physics professor – is a classic whodunit in itself and Stateham builds an admirable tension as the investigation collides with Hahn’s burgeoning romance with a major suspect.
I understand that Stateham is working on another Hahn and Morales novel. I look forward to reading it. If the characters are developed in a little more depth and the manuscript is more thoroughly edited before publication, it promises to be a classic. In the meantime, I wholeheartedly recommend “Murderous Passions” to anyone with a taste for classic crime thrillers brought up-to-date with convincing realism. show less
The story opens when Hahn and Morales are called in when an unpleasant and universally-disliked physics professor is found in an apparently inaccessible computer room with his throat cut. In an unrelated case, a girl is brutally stabbed to death – and the chief suspect, her unfaithful boyfriend, is also found dead. A psychopathic gangster who seems to consider himself bullet-proof also demands the pair’s attention. And there’s a trigger-happy gang of jewel thieves… The reader is occasionally a little confused, but so – inevitably – are the two detectives.
Despite a few typing errors and a few awkward sentences, and despite the lack of conviction about aspects of physics, I enjoyed this novel greatly. The blemishes didn’t distract me. The characters are entertaining, even though Hahn seems a little too good to be true. (Why does so attractive, competent, rich, show more well-read and successful a man have such difficulties in his love life?!) The narrative voice – Hahn’s – is witty, recalling Chandler’s Marlowe and Hammett’s Spade in its general tone, but quite distinctive nevertheless. The central case – the murdered physics professor – is a classic whodunit in itself and Stateham builds an admirable tension as the investigation collides with Hahn’s burgeoning romance with a major suspect.
I understand that Stateham is working on another Hahn and Morales novel. I look forward to reading it. If the characters are developed in a little more depth and the manuscript is more thoroughly edited before publication, it promises to be a classic. In the meantime, I wholeheartedly recommend “Murderous Passions” to anyone with a taste for classic crime thrillers brought up-to-date with convincing realism. show less
“Nothing is what it seems, in Beaufort Falls,” declares the cover. Indeed, in this small community in the wilds of Alabama, only the mentally disturbed seem sane. This remarkable tale of interpersonal dynamics and emotional and physical abuse isn’t comfortable reading, but it’s gripping, engaging and alleviated by delightful moments of comedy, especially in the episodes involving Spike and Virgil, probably the two most incompetent hired assassins in literature. The strongest features of the novel, apart from the evocative prose writing and the excellent characterization, are the author’s brilliantly controlled point-of-view switches and the sharp (and often welcome) contrasts of mood and atmosphere.
The multiple interlocking plot-lines defy easy summarizing, but the essentials are as follows. Southern Bible-thumper John Duke Parsons abused and finally murdered his wife, Eliza, and killed one of her babies (who wasn’t his). Now he physically and emotionally abuses his little daughters, who love each other intensely. JD suffers a series of near-fatal accidents, apparently engineered by the unquiet ghost of Eliza, whose primary concern is to protect her surviving children; his grip on reality gradually slackens. The effect is both comic and disturbing. When the elder daughter, Molly, is consigned to the local children’s psychiatric hospital – a Dickensian institution – and thus deprived of her sister’s company, her isolation is movingly portrayed; even show more her mother’s ghost has limited power to protect and comfort her. A group of boys at the hospital meet in a nearby cave, creating a children’s fantasy land into which they intend to introduce Molly. Anna Johnson, a splendidly determined Family and Children’s Services officer, does her best to protect the children, but regulations restrict her options. Meanwhile, the unlikely hero of the tale – Charlie Callaghan, a Revivalist preacher and psychopathic killer who preserves and befriends the severed heads of his innocent victims – is fleeing from justice and ends up working at the psychiatric hospital. These strands of story (and I haven’t mentioned them all!) are adroitly brought together to produce a hair-raising climax situated in the boys’ fantasy-land cave. At that point, I couldn’t have stopped reading for a winning lottery ticket.
Mari Sloan resolves the complexities of plot, characters and relationships with satisfying aplomb. “Beaufort Falls” is an impressive debut novel. It is highly distinctive and a very satisfying reading experience. I recommend it strongly, and I look forward keenly to the promised sequel, “Road Trip”. show less
The multiple interlocking plot-lines defy easy summarizing, but the essentials are as follows. Southern Bible-thumper John Duke Parsons abused and finally murdered his wife, Eliza, and killed one of her babies (who wasn’t his). Now he physically and emotionally abuses his little daughters, who love each other intensely. JD suffers a series of near-fatal accidents, apparently engineered by the unquiet ghost of Eliza, whose primary concern is to protect her surviving children; his grip on reality gradually slackens. The effect is both comic and disturbing. When the elder daughter, Molly, is consigned to the local children’s psychiatric hospital – a Dickensian institution – and thus deprived of her sister’s company, her isolation is movingly portrayed; even show more her mother’s ghost has limited power to protect and comfort her. A group of boys at the hospital meet in a nearby cave, creating a children’s fantasy land into which they intend to introduce Molly. Anna Johnson, a splendidly determined Family and Children’s Services officer, does her best to protect the children, but regulations restrict her options. Meanwhile, the unlikely hero of the tale – Charlie Callaghan, a Revivalist preacher and psychopathic killer who preserves and befriends the severed heads of his innocent victims – is fleeing from justice and ends up working at the psychiatric hospital. These strands of story (and I haven’t mentioned them all!) are adroitly brought together to produce a hair-raising climax situated in the boys’ fantasy-land cave. At that point, I couldn’t have stopped reading for a winning lottery ticket.
Mari Sloan resolves the complexities of plot, characters and relationships with satisfying aplomb. “Beaufort Falls” is an impressive debut novel. It is highly distinctive and a very satisfying reading experience. I recommend it strongly, and I look forward keenly to the promised sequel, “Road Trip”. show less