Fri 20 Apr 2018
An Archived PI Review: RONALD TIERNEY – The Stone Veil.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
RONALD TIERNEY – The Stone Veil. Deets Shanahan #1. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 1990. Life Death & Fog Books, softcover, 2011.
Is there room in Indianapolis for another PI? Move over, Albert Samson, and make room for Dietrich “Deets” Shanahan, pushing 70, nearly retired, but still man enough to take on both a missing husband case and a new lady friend whom he meets working in a massage parlor.
He’s not really inept, trying to cope with new computer technology and so on, but he doesn’t really shine either. The problem with this, his second case in four years, is that over 70% of it concerns his personal life. But then, his personal life is interesting.
The Deets Shanahan series —
1. The Stone Veil (1990)
2. The Steel Web (1991)
3. The Iron Glove (1992)
4. The Concrete Pillow (1995)
5. Nickel-Plated Soul (2004)
6. Platinum Canary (2005)
7. Glass Chameleon (2006)
8. Asphalt Moon (2007)
9. Bloody Palms (2008)
10. Bullet Beach (2010)
11. Killing Frost (2015)
Note: The Stone Veil was a finalist for both the St. Martin’s Press and Shamus awards for the best first mystery novel
April 20th, 2018 at 9:37 pm
One thing I absolutely hate about too many modern mystery series is that they are about everything but the mystery. Granted there are characters interesting enough to carry me through a functionary plot, but what is the point of writing a series of mysteries with no mystery?
Even Chandler, who believed the detective was everything in his works, understood there had to be more to a mystery than his protagonists personal life.
It’s getting to be a tiresome trope that you pick up a mystery and 70,000 words later you’ve been treated to a soap opera but can’t recall who did what to whom, and if anything much happened.
It’s possible to write a good novel about a detective looking for a missing dog and finding it, but don’t pretend it’s a mystery.
April 20th, 2018 at 11:49 pm
I don’t remember the book, other than this review, and while I agree with you in general, David, there must have been something about his personal life that I enjoyed reading about.
On the other hand, even though he wrote a lot of books in the series, they seem to have flown beneath my radar, and a lot of other people’s, too. He doesn’t seem to have gotten a lot of attention for them.
April 20th, 2018 at 10:27 pm
According to Mystery Fanfare and The Rap Sheet, Ronald Tierney died of cancer back in September 2017.
April 20th, 2018 at 11:42 pm
Thanks, Walker. I seem to have missed either note about his pasing, but Al Hubin didn’t. His death is included in Part 11 of the current Addenda to his Crime Fiction IV:
http://www.crimefictioniv.com/Part_11A.html
April 22nd, 2018 at 5:30 am
I read and enjoyed the early group of these, but haven’t read the more recent ones. But then, back then I read a lot of PI fiction and these days I don’t.