Thu 16 Apr 2020
Stories I’m Reading: LOU MANFREDO “A Study in Mint.â€
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[2] Comments
LOU MANFREDO “A Study in Mint.†Short story. Gus Oliver #5. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, November 2013. Probably never reprinted or collected.
Lou Manfredo, befoe he turned his hand to writing, was a 25-year veteran of the Brooklyn criminal justice system. Upon his retirement he wrote three well-regarded novels about a Brooklyn cop named Joe Rizzo, who also appeared in a handful of short stories about life of a policeman whose primary goal was to do his job and do it well.
He also wrote five stories about Gus Oliver, who at the time of this story, was the constable in the small farming of Central Islip, Long Island. “A Study in Mint†is in fact the prequel to the other four, taking place in 1939 and telling the tale of how Oliver cracked the case of the first murder to have taken place there since its founding, or well over 200 years earlier.
The death of one its inhabitants is designed to look like suicide, or so the state trooper who is first on the scene is convinced. By why was the body found near a well-kept garden, Gus asks himself, and why had he already contracted for some home improvements to be done with he month?
It’s a case of the local cop knowing the people in the town he’s close to, not the outside one who comes in and sees things that are of surface value only. There are no surprises in this story, only good old-fashioned police work. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The Gus Oliver series –
Central Islin, U.S.A. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Aug 2009
The Home of the Brave. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jan 2012
A Path to Somewhere. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Sep/Oct 2012
The Star of the Running Blood. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine May 2013
A Study in Mint. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Nov 2013
April 16th, 2020 at 8:31 pm
The three Rizzo books were really well done, realistic characters and a nice attention to detail.
As far as I know, he just did the three books and nothing since then.
April 16th, 2020 at 8:57 pm
No, I haven’t found anything to say that other than the dozen or short stories I was referring to, he never wrote more than the three Rizzo novels. I may be mistaken, but I’m sure I read the first one. I remember thinking that we had another Joseph Wambaugh on our hands, but as I so often do, or don’t, I never followed up.