Mon 30 Jan 2017
A PI Mystery Review: EDWARD MATHIS – From a High Place.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[8] Comments
EDWARD MATHIS – From a High Place. Dan Roman #1. Charles Scribner’s Sons, hardcover, 1985. Ballantine, paperback; 1st printing, July 1987.
Edward Mathis died at the relatively young age of 61 in 1988. He started late, but once he got going, he must have been a very fast writer, because four of the eight recorded cases of Texas PI Dan Roman must have gotten backed up at Scribner’s at the time of his death and were never published until two or three more years had gone by.
From a High Place is the first of the series and the first I’ve read. In large part it’s a personal affair, since the man whose death he’s asked to investigate lived in Roman’s home town of Butler Wells. His widow was Roman’s high school teacher. The death has been written off as an accident, but since her husband had a severe case of acrophobia, she wonders what he was doing at the top of cliff he fell from.
Revisiting his home town in many years also brings back many memories, almost all of them centered on the glory days of high school — good buddies, football, and the girl who introduced him to the delights of sex — one never-to-be-forgotten night only.
Roman’s life has not been a happy since then. Both his wife and son have died, leaving him a loner, for example, and who could blame him for the moodiness that sometimes seems to swallow him up? Life in a small Texas town can also be a lot more complicated than an outsider could ever imagine, and this is depicted well.
I think, though, that 278 pages (in the paperback edition) is a little too long for a case that should take a lot less time than that to tell. A little leaner story might have helped, in my opinion, but given how it all comes out, Mathis knew what he had in mind all along. As I say, it’s a moody, nostalgic kind of tale, and if that’s right up your alley, this is exactly the book for you.
The Dan Roman series —
From a High Place (1985).
Dark Streaks and Empty Places (1986).
Natural Prey (1987).
Another Path, Another Dragon (1988).
The Burned Woman (1989).
Out of the Shadows (1990).
September Song (1991).
The Fifth Level (1992)
January 30th, 2017 at 11:17 pm
Mathis had written for years and just put the manuscripts in a drawer. His daughter found them and persuaded him to try for publication. There was a big stash left behind when he died.
January 30th, 2017 at 11:41 pm
Thanks, Bill. This rings a bell now. I’m sure I knew this at the time, but I’d forgotten.
January 31st, 2017 at 7:42 am
I remember reading a couple of them, but they were just OK and I never went back to him.
January 31st, 2017 at 11:21 am
I’m encouraged enough by this first sample to try another, but if the emphasis stays on Roman’s own personal life, rather the cases he’s on, that may be the end of the ride for me also.
January 31st, 2017 at 5:54 pm
With the exception of Bill Crider, Mathis and Roman were the closest to the sometime surreal small town Texas I knew, especially East Texas.
I realize all regions of the country have their version of these eccentric areas, but I do believe Texas and maybe Louisiana is a bit more surreal than some of the others.
I loved Mathis and Dan Roman. Ironic the two best writers of the region have heroes with initials D. R.
February 2nd, 2017 at 6:53 pm
Just finished reading this novel and enjoyed it. Interesting to note the police chief on pages 33-34 talks about reading the Spider pulps. It seems he came across about 1500 pulps and enjoys reading them.
The novel sort of goes off the rails when Roman takes up with his old teenage sweetheart. The story stops and he forgets about the murder case. But then he picks up the plot again after dumping her.
Since this is Mathis’ first novel I’m hoping he continues to improve with the second, third, etc. I’ll give them a try since he is one of the better PI authors.
February 2nd, 2017 at 8:08 pm
I read this book over the course of three or four evenings, and by the time I wrote up my review, I’d forgotten all about that stash of old pulp magazines. Shame on me!
April 8th, 2023 at 2:52 pm
[…] some reservations, mostly minor, I enjoyed reading From a High Place, the first in this series, well enough that when this fourth Dan Roman adventure […]