Murder Off the Books

    This is a zany, fast-paced, well-written mystery by two very talented writers who combine their gifts under the name of Evelyn David. The partnership of a coal administrator for the Oklahoma Department of Mines and a political science major with experience in nonfiction books on parenting and education has produced a page-turning mystery that begs to be read at one sitting. Well developed characters, a tight plot, and power- punched verbiage (“. . .the repairman with the six-pack-a-day paunch” ) make this mystery a delightful read. Three teens, whose emotionally directed antics befuddle and thwart the protagonist in his goal to solve the mystery, a lovable dog who tries to keep his automotive-wrecking owner on the right track, and a major witness who never has transportation when she needs it all contribute to the laughter and the suspense that characterizes this story. Even when you think the mystery is solved, the ending has just one more final, amusing and exciting twist.

   Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Sullivan has traded his gold shield for a PI licenses, retiring from the police force to assume a quieter life as his own boss. His co-star is a delightful, gently assertive Irish Wolfhound named Whiskey. His current assignment to find a bundle of money missing from the local college’s accounts seems tied to finding the missing assistant comptroller named Daniel Thayer. Mac and Whiskey are not really concerned that Thayer’s boss, one Vince Malwick, has turned up dead. The murder, in Mac’s thinking, is the job for the police.

    Mac and Whiskey are concerned with keeping their eyes on Thayer’s sister Rachael Brenner in the hopes she will lead them to her brother and the money. From the first, Mac has more in common with Rachael than conflict. Neither seems able to keep any kind of motor vehicle running. In Rachael’s case, it’s because her 1995 Dodge Caravan, dubbed The Blue Dog, is a wreck and money is in short supply to fix it. Mac’s problem is similar. While Rachael walks or takes cabs, Mac borrows vehicles from his friend Jeff O’Herlihy. Jeff has aspirations of expanding beyond his funeral home business and keeps accepting unusual vehicles in partial payments for funeral services. Mac keeps conning Jeff into letting him borrow this vehicle and that despite the fact that he seems to wreck or trash each one. Stake-outs in an ice cream truck brings interesting rewards, especially to Whiskey, who can pig out on banana popsicles, but white vans labeled Big Sal’s Appliance Repair or the bright yellow van decorated with a large black cockroach, ‘legs in air lying next to a tombstone marked RIP’, render their abilities to blend with the background a bit difficult.

    If that isn’t enough, Mac has a great deal of unwelcome help in his detecting. Rachel’s nosy neighbor wants to assist, if someone will just help him with his wheelchair and make certain his oxygen bottle and apparatus come along. And a trio of teenagers put their noses into the investigation whether they’re wanted or not. Like the mechanical conveyances, the teens stand out in any crowd, especially Carrie Taylor who changes earrings frequently but never her purple streaked bangs.

    I loved the admission by Mac to Whiskey that ‘I should have listened to you’. Maybe my human will take note. Can’t wait for the sequel!

For more information about this upcoming mystery, go to www.echelonpress.com.