Sat 26 May 2012
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: ERIC WRIGHT – Death By Degrees.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
ERIC WRIGHT – Death By Degrees. Charlie Salter #10. Scribner’s, US, hardcover, 1993. Worldwide, US, paperback, 1995. Doubleday, Canada, hardcover, 1993. Bantam Seal, Canada, paperback (shown).
In Charlie Salter, Wright has created one of the more credible and likable policemen of modern detective fiction. I’m delighted — though somewhat surprised — that the books haven’t been driven off the shelves by the plethora of Big Cop and serial killer books that have appeared of late.
Charlie’s father has fallen and suffered a head injury, and probably had a stroke as well. Charlie is somewhat surprised to find himself distraught to the point of being unable to function; his relationship with the old man had not been close.
To take his mind off his troubles, and a report he’s working on that has been eating him alive, he volunteers to investigate a killing at a local non-degree college. At first thought to be a cut-and-dried robbery, its status is now in doubt because of a series of anonymous notes pointing toward involvement of some university personnel.
In between all night stays at the hospital, Charlie begins to snuffle around in the halls academe, and introduce himself to the intrigues of academic bureaucracy.
For me, the Salter books have a number of strong points, Charlie and his family — his wife, their two sons, his irascible father and his common-law wife — have all been developed over the course of the series into fully fleshed-out human beings, in whom the reader can be interested, and for whom it is possible to care.
There is real police work, accomplished without violence or pyrotechnics. And Wright writes well. It’s an excellent series.
Editorial Comment: I concur, as my review of The Night the Gods Smiled, the first of the Charlie Salter series, should tell you. I won’t repeat it here, but following the review is a complete bibliography of all of Eric Wright’s crime fiction.
May 27th, 2012 at 5:14 am
I heartily concur with you and Barry. Eric Wright is one of my favorite mystery writers and I only wish he’d written more books.
May 27th, 2012 at 11:34 am
Anytime you, Barry and I all agree that an author is good has to mean that he’s really good. What I can’t explain is why he was so relatively unknown, even back when he was putting out book after book, year after year.
And 17 or 18 books isn’t so bad a legacy to leave behind. If legacy is not a bad choice of word to use. Eric Wright is still with us, as far as I know, and will be 83 this year.
May 28th, 2012 at 5:50 am
I’ve read his Charlie Salter series, his memoir (ALWAYS GIVE A PENNY TO A BLIND MAN), and a few of his other books – the ones I’ve been able to get easily from the library and the Crippen & Landru collection of his stories, which was excellent.