Vintage Silver Age Mystery
Just the Facts Category: How — At least two deaths with different means
TBR #92 (59e, 33p)
Date Finished: August 11, 2019
Retired private detective Brock Callahan starts nosing around an investigation being conducted by his young friend Corey among some former acquaintances of Brock’s and former high school classmates of Brock’s wife Jan. One sleazy operator who has had dealings with Brock may be blackmailing his former father-in-law, while his wife may be sneaking around on him with an ex-boxer who went to high school with Jan. The boxer’s little buddy, who also went to school with Jan, becomes pals with Brock and then a bum is poisoned and someone else is shot.
The third in the series since being revived after many years, this one again disappoints. Brock’s new wealth and leisure status has taken away some of the urgency and motivation. When he used to work for free, Jan would nag, they’d be unhappy and the relationship would be rocky. Here everything is fine, Jan is happy and satisfied, and Brock has no problems. He continues to be too friendly with no edge other than boredom. The convoluted nature of the character relationships in this story also required a chart and the motivation of the murderer as an LGBT person who REALLY refuses to come out of the closet is disappointing. Gault’s early work was great so I really wanted to like these late efforts.
