Fri 2 Dec 2011
A Review by Maryell Cleary: PATRICK BUCHANAN – A Murder of Crows.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[4] Comments
PATRICK BUCHANAN – A Murder of Crows. Stein & Day, hardcover, 1970; reprint paperback, 1985. Also: Pyramid N2743, paperback, 1972.
An intriguing title and a riveting first chapter entice the reader who stands hesitating at the paperback book rack. Unfortunately for the buyer, the rest of the book does not live up to the beginning.
Ben Shock and Charity Tucker, private investigators without credentials, are asked by an old friend of Charity’s, Subrinea Brown, to look into the sudden local hostility to her father’s small racetrack in the making. The antagonism has gone so far as to frighten Colonel Brown into a heart attack.
Subrinea’s fiance, Loyal Boone, is also trying to find out what changed public support into active hostility. Could it be the Unknown Tongues, a mountain sect with a spellbinding blind preacher? Might the crooked local politicians have a more profitable scheme in mind? Do Loyal’s father and his Mexican wife, with their money-making snake farm, have any connection with the continuing and determined efforts to get Subrinea and her father out?
People die, their bodies burned, their clothes not even singed. Are the Unknown Tongues invoking back-country magic? Does Uncle Uglybird, the “yarb doctor” know any of the answers? Uncle Uglybird is a 14-carat-gold character, but he’s not worth the price of admission.
The book is stiff, the people don’t come alive, mayhem accumulates, and at the end the two detectives ride off to the next case scarcely touched emotionally by the devastation they left behind.
Bio-Bibliographic Data: “Patrick Buchanan” was the joint pen name of Edwin Corley & Jack Murphy. Corley’s Wikipedia page describes Charity Tucker as “a tall, blonde, intelligent television reporter, who teamed with private investigator Ben Shock to investigate various murders.”
The Ben Shock & Charity Tucker series —
A Murder of Crows. Stein & Day, 1970.
A Parliament of Owls. Stein & Day, 1971.
A Requiem of Sharks. Dodd Mead, 1973.
A Sounder of Swine. Dodd Mead, 1974.
December 2nd, 2011 at 9:59 pm
The first three of the series were reprinted by Pyramid, and those are the ones I have. I read them when they first came out, but I don’t remember being any more impressed with them than Maryell was.
In fact, I’d all but forgotten them until I came across this old review. Both authors, if remembered today, are not because of these four books, I’m sure.
December 2nd, 2011 at 10:02 pm
On the other hand, looking carefully at the cover of the Stein & Day paperback, an unnamed reviewer for the New York Times is quoted as saying, “One of the Top Ten mysteries of the year.”
December 3rd, 2011 at 8:05 am
I read the Pyramid reprints and must have liked them well enough to remember them. I’ve read other things by Corley that I liked more, however.
December 3rd, 2011 at 10:02 am
I was thinking over night when the last time was that I saw one of the Pyramid reprints in a used bookshop, and I couldn’t remember when.
So I looked on ABE, and I found 23 copies of the three books combined (the Pyramid books). If you’re willing to settle for copies in Fair to Good condition, you’re not going to have to spend a lot of money — you’d pay more for postage in many cases.
What’s surprising, though, is that of the 23 copies, six are offered for sale by booksellers in Canada, and one is in the UK, leaving only 16 in the hands of US sellers.
I think this qualifies them as scarce books.