Thu 16 Sep 2010
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: FRANK C. STRUNK – Jordan’s Showdown.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
FRANK C. STRUNK – Jordan’s Showdown. Berkley Jordan #2; Walker, hardcover, 1993.
This is the second in a series set in Kentucky coal-mining country in the Depression era. I missed the first, Jordan’s Wager (Walker, 1991).
Berkley Jordan is about 50, and after being defeated in a bid for the Sheriff’s office is working for a lady who runs a poolroom and gambling house. He broke up with his true love after events in the first book, and is feeling a bit down about it.
The book opens with a hired assassin shooting a miner on his front porch. We don’t know who, or why. The stage is quickly set as we learn that the union is coming to the mining town where Jordan lives, or at least the miners hope it is.
Jordan is determined to stay neutral, but it’s proving hard. Not only are the miners pressuring him, but the owner of the mining town calls him in and asks him to help in avoiding a possible bloodbath. Jordan remains stubborn, but then the assassin kills again. This time the victim is close to Jordan, and he can remain aloof no longer.
This is both a regional and historical crime novel (not really a mystery) and Strunk handles both aspects well, evoking the atmosphere of both time and place. He switches viewpoints among Jordan, the killer, and the mine owners, and moves the story along effectively. Union boss John L. Lewis and Kentucky Lieutenant Governor “Happy” Chandler (baseball fans will remember him) make appearances toward the end.
As I said, it really isn’t a mystery; we know who and why long before the end. It is, however, a well done story with believable characters and an appealing lead. I enjoyed it, and I’d like to read more of Strunk.
Bibliographic Note: Unfortunately there were no further appearances of Berkley Jordan, only the two books and that was all. Frank C. Strunk did write another novel, though, one that appears in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, and that’s Throwback (Harper, 1996). It also takes place in rural Appalachia, but in the present day. An interview with the author can be found here.
September 16th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Following Al Hubin’s recent review of Harold Adams’ THE MAN WHO MET THE TRAIN, an entry in the author’s Depression era Carl Wilcox series, David Vineyard and I were discussing other similar series. I wasn’t able to come up with any, but here’s another, even if there were only two books in this abbreviated Berkley Jordan run.
I’d never heard of either of them until now. If mysteries come out in hardcover and never in paperback, they often slip by me, and that’s what happened here.
September 16th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Though obviously there are quite a few historical mystery series set in the Depression era most of them are more concerned with the hard boiled private eye than the Depression itself. These are about the only two writers I can think of save maybe the THE HOT KID and its sequel by Elmore Leonard.
Plenty of crime novels set in the era — including Leonard’s THE MOONSHINE WAR, but these are the only ones I know of dealing with specific Depression era subjects in a series format. All things considered it is surprising the setting and milieu isn’t used more often for a series — it’s a natural.
Maybe the national trauma is still too fresh to use the period in that way.
September 17th, 2010 at 2:03 am
David
A name that has been blocked up in my brain the last couple of weeks has finally burst free. A fellow named Fred Harris wrote a couple of mysteries taking place in Depression era Oklahoma, both with sheriff Okie Dunn: COYOTE REVENGE (1999) and EASY PICKIN’S (2000).
I’m sure I have these, but I haven’t read either one. Now that I’ve jogged your memory, have you?
— Steve
September 17th, 2010 at 6:29 am
I have. Well, I read COYOTE REVENGE anyway. I don’t really remember much about it other than the time period and setting – and that “Fred Harris” was the former Oklahoma Senator and one-time Presidential candidate.
I always meant to read the second book, but so far I haven’t.
September 17th, 2010 at 11:51 am
That’s one I missed, though I know who Fred Harris was — sort of, I was in Texas at the time and we didn’t pay much attention to Okie politics. Some of Jim Leher’s books are mystery oriented, are any of them set in the Depression?
I can think of plenty of stand alones but not many series.