Tue 4 Oct 2011
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: M. K. WREN – Dead Matter.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews1 Comment
M. K. WREN – Dead Matter. Conan Flagg #7. Ballantine, paperback original, 1993.
I thought this series was dead, but after a nine year hiatus, it’s back. Conan Flagg, bookstore owner, private detective, and wealthy man, returns from a trip to his hometown in Oregon to find chaos.
While he was gone, his store manager has arranged a book signing for a local boy made good, and the bookstore is swarmed. During the signing, a local logger, being a little put out with the author for bedding his wife, threatens him with a chain saw in the store, but is disarmed by Flagg.
The next day, after a party which Flagg attended, the unpopular fellow is found with is throat ripped out — by a chain saw.
I liked the Flagg series in its original incarnation. Wren, who has written in several fields, knew how to tell a story, and in Flagg had created a sympathetic if not outstanding character. The books were not designed to make any top 10 lists, but were decent examples of their craft.
I see no reason to revise any of these judgments for this.
The Conan Flagg series —
1. Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat (1973)
2. A Multitude of Sins (1975)
3. Oh, Bury Me Not (1976)
4. Nothing’s Certain But Death (1978)
5. Seasons of Death (1981)
6. Wake Up, Darlin’ Corey (1984)
7. Dead Matter (1993)
8. King of the Mountain (1994
October 4th, 2011 at 6:49 pm
For mystery fans, especially those predisposed toward cozies anyway, not only was Conan Flagg a bookstore owner and very wealthy, but he was (as I recall) a cat fancier as well.
That he was a private eye on the side was only a bonus.
Unfortunately in the one I read, one of the first two or three, I found him also rather bland as a character, or the story was. I’m not sure which.
I’m not trying to refute Barry’s judgment, by any means. Only expressing my own, as I remember it, and who knows, maybe I’m remembering it wrong. It was almost 40 years ago.