REVIEWED BY BARRY GARDNER:


M. K. WREN – Dead Matter. Conan Flagg #7. Ballantine, paperback original, 1993.

M K WREN Conan Flagg

   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.

— Reprinted from Ah, Sweet Mysteries #8, July 1993.


    The Conan Flagg series —

1. Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat (1973)

M K WREN Conan Flagg

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)

M K WREN Conan Flagg

7. Dead Matter (1993)
8. King of the Mountain (1994