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 Bad Moon Rising *Starred Review Ed Gorman. Pegasus (Norton, dist.), $25 (208p) ISBN 978-1-60598-260-1 Social turmoil overshadows the sleuthing in Gorman’s excellent ninth Sam McCain mystery (after 2009’s A Ticket to Ride). In 1968, a hippie commune near Black River Falls, Iowa, both horrifies and entices the townsfolk with its uninhibited lifestyle. Sardonic lawyer and investigator McCain becomes involved after the discovery of the body of Vanessa Mainwaring, the teenage daughter of a well-to-do local, at the commune, and a Vietnam vet who’s one of its members flees. Interference by a bigoted sheriff, an opportunistic preacher, and a hysterical father makes matters even worse as Sam tries not just to solve the murder but to help the people around him caught in an intensely stressful situation. The real crime, as Sam eventually realizes, is how one generation exploits the next—while the younger generation devours itself. In turn mellow and melancholy, this book grapples with problems that are too complex for any detective to untangle. (Oct.) |
There is something in Sam McCain that comes alive in all of us who were young in those years. Sue loved them, and read them as long as she lived and wanted me to get them all to her. I think she must be reading them from her perch in the clouds even now. Thank you for keeping on with this long-running excellent series.
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