Sourcebooks Landmark isn’t an imprint I would normally turn to for a good mystery, but indeed Michael Malone’s mystery set in North Carolina is very good.
Justin Savile is a member of one of the more powerful families in Hillston, North Carolina, the Dollards. He’s not exactly the black sheep, but he hasn’t exactly turned out quite like the family intended him to. After a stint in a sanatorium to dry him out after some extensive drinking, he’s managed to get himself a law degree funded by the family. But rather than go into the family business, politics, he’s become a detective on Hillston’s small police force. Cuthbert Cuddy
Mangum is the force’s other detective. He’s from the other side of the tracks, but he got himself fairly educated. Despite the trappings of a cop/buddy novel, the entire novel is told from Justin’s point of view.
The mystery is who killed Cloris Dollard, the wife of Justin’s uncle Rowell, Hillston’s state senator. The Dollard household is missing a lot of silverware, jewelry, and a collection of old coins that belong to Cloris’ first husband, Bainton Ames. The first suspect who turns up is Preston Pope, a member of the less genteel class of the south. While at the Pope house on a domestic violence call, Justin stumbles across several bags of Cloris Dollard’s jewelry. Cuddy doesn’t think Preston Pope did the dirty deed though, primarily because Preston Pope was too stupid to leave no evidence at the crime scene.
And the monkey-wrench thrown into the whole thing is Joanna Cadmean. The Cadmean’s are the other powerful family in Hillston. Joanna married into it though. Years ago, when Rowell Dollard was the prosecutor, Joanna had been a psychic who assisted the police on numerous cases, including that of the accidental death of Bainton Ames. Now a decade and a half later she’s returned to Hillston claiming that her psychic abilities are telling her that Cloris’ death has something to do with Bainton Ames death years before. Her information turns out to be backed up by actual evidence, though it isn’t definitive.
What makes the book interesting is that the Cadmean and Dollard families put lots of pressure on Justin to not dirty the family names during the investigation. Now, it seems like that could easily be because there’s lots of dirt to dig up. But who exactly has done what? There are a lot of names involved (you try to keep all those names above straight!). But because Justin doesn’t exactly like his family heritage, though he doesn’t refuse the help his connections give him, he does stir the pot some. It doesn’t hurt that Joanna Cadmean is gorgeous and Justin has a bit of a crush on her.
My only real criticism is how Malone chose to end the book. Since there are later books in the series, it will come as no spoiler to anyone that Justin lives through the end and solves the crime. Justin figures out who did it. I won’t say whether he catches the perpetrators of the various crimes that occur. But Malone uses a mystery writing setup that I’ve decided I don’t like much. Towards the end after Justin has figured most everything out, he gets himself shot by one of the bad guys. The reveal of how everything ties together is told to him in his hospital bed and afterward. I’d rather our hero participate in wrapping up loose ends. Or even better sometimes, leave some loose ends untied. There are some big ones here that I think could easily have been left a mystery and it would have made the book better.
I like the characters in the book, and not just Justin & Cuddy. There’s some friendly cop/buddy banter going on between the two detectives, but it isn’t overbearing like some get. It sounds remarkably like my friends, outside of the fact that we aren’t detectives. Justin doesn’t get along with his uncle, his boss, and a few other people. But they aren’t his nemeses either. They all manage to work together despite disliking each other. A few of the characters, like old Briggs Cadmean and Ratcher Phelps the fence, like to play coy and hold cards close to the vest. It’s kind of fun watching them dance around saying the obvious in the scenes where they play a part.
Malone has some skill. I will likely pick up a few more of this series eventually. Eventually. I really need to dig myself out from under the pile I already have.
Title: Uncivil seasons
Author: Michael Malone
Series: Justin & Cuddy; 1
Imprint / publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark / Sourcebooks
Format: Paperback
Length: 324 p.
Publication date: 2001 (original publication 1983)
ISBN-10: 1-57071-755-9
Subject: Police — North Carolina — Fiction
Subject: North Carolina — Fiction
LC classification: PS3563.A43244 U5 2001
