“The Circumstantial Man,” “The Glass Forest” and more
The Circumstantial Man
By Gary Reilly (Running Meter Press)
It starts out as a bad day for Pete Larkey. He’s lost his job, and his car doesn’t start. So he decides to walk into town to buy a battery but instead, he stops off at a bar. As he leaves the bar, he sees his car coming down the street and runs after it, hoping to catch the thief. The driver mows down a friend of Larkey’s, ditches the car, and the police find Larkey sitting in the driver’s seat.
Turns out that’s the best part of Larkey’s day. The rest of it includes two kidnappings and a dead man in Larkey’s bathroom — a robber who chokes on a piece of bread. Then there’s an attempt on Larkey’s life.
“The Circumstantial Man” is a remarkable mystery — clever and sly and filled with twists and turns. Larkey’s asides and his view of his life are filled with humor and insight. This is a terrific read, and one that almost didn’t get published.
Author Gary Reilly was a Denver cab driver and aspiring writer of 25 novels, not a one of which was published before his 2011 death. A group of friends, including Denver novelist (and former Denver Post reporter) Mark Stevens, discovered the manuscripts and are doling them out under the Running Meter Press imprint.
Eleven Reilly novels are in print, including eight in The Asphalt Warrior series about a cab driver, and three in the Vietnam Series, telling about the life of a veteran. “The Circumstantial Man,” a standalone novel, is the best of the lot so far. You can’t help but wonder why no one sought to print it when Reilly was alive.
The Glass Forest
By Cynthia Swanson (Touchstone)
Angie Glass is a new mother besotted with her much older husband, Paul. When Paul receives news that his sister-in-law, Silja, has disappeared and his brother, Henry, has committed suicide,
Angie insists on accompanying him to the brother’s home in upstate New York. Paul resists but gives in after Angie says Paul’s niece, 17, needs a stand-in mother.
The circumstances of the death and disappearance are odd. Speculation is that Henry killed himself after reading Silja’s note that she was leaving. Henry is not suicidal, however. In fact, he is an oddball who has leached on his wife for nearly 20 years, ever since he came home from World War II. And where is Silja? Her car is at the train station, but nobody saw her leave and the car keys are in Silja’s coat pocket, hanging in the closet. Their daughter is taciturn and uncommunicative with Angie, although she talks in secret with her Uncle Paul.
Written by Denver author Cynthia Swanson, the story is told from the viewpoints of three women — Angie, Ruby and Silja. Angie is confused and naïve, reluctant to question whether her husband is what she believed him to be. Ruby is secretive. Silja’s story, which takes place before her disappearance, tells of a failed marriage, a cruel husband who came back from the war bitter and impotent and refuses to give his wife a divorce. The husband and wife live separate lives in their glass house at the edge of a forest.
“The Glass Forest” is more than a mystery. It is a well-crafted story of a complex family with secrets that will surprise the reader.
A Death in Eden
By Keith Mccafferty (Viking)
Harold Little Feather had been working undercover on a poaching investigation when he was suddenly called off that job and assigned another case. A series of gigantic scarecrows is showing up along Montana’s Smith River, scaring boaters. The scarecrows are protesting the development of a huge copper mine near the river and appear to be part of a “Save the Smith” effort.
So Harold sets off down the
Smith with a film crew documenting the copper mine controversy, two old ranchers on either side of the issue, and Harold’s newly discovered son, Marcus, 17. Harold didn’t even know about the kid until a few weeks earlier.
Partway down the river, the boaters discover a headless body. Harold identifies the man responsible for the scarecrows. The man leads him into a cave where Harold finds the missing head. Then Harold disappears.
Not to worry, of course. Harold’s friend Sean Stranahan, the hero of half-adozen other Keith Mccafferty outdoor mysteries, is out looking for the missing man. And he’s brought along another competent sleuth, Sheriff Martha Ettinger, a tough bird who nonetheless is hinting she’s ready to marry Sean.
Mccafferty is the survival and outdoor skills editor of Field & Stream. So there is plenty of fishing and hunting and boating lore in the book. The details on guns and flies can be tedious to those not in the know. Still, “A Death in Eden” is a solid mystery that will appeal to armchair readers as well as outdoor enthusiasts.