Review: Mink Eyes by Max McBride

Peter O'Keefe, a PI and owner of a detective agency, is hired by a high school friend now high powered attorney, Harrigan, to investigate irregularities at a mink farm in the Ozarks. The manager has disappeared along with profits and the owners and investors appear to have been ensnared in a ponzi scheme. This should have been a relatively simple job: check out the farm, review the books, question the wife  on the whereabouts of the missing manager. Things go very bad, very quickly when two gun thugs appear on the scene, also looking for the missing money. O'Keefe finds himself in a life or death situation as he tries to save both himself and the wife of missing manager. Complicating matters is his instant and intense attraction to the wife. Will it be a fatal attraction?

Mink Eyes is a period piece set in 1986 which allows us to have a Vietnam veteran as a protagonist. It also means that the investigation has to be done old school: no internet and no cell phones. It's refreshing to go back to this type of detective story.

I would put O'Keefe into the "defective detective" category. In addition to being a combat veteran, he drinks and smokes too much and has become deeply disillusioned both with his job and his life. One consequence is that he has separated from his wife though he attempts to stay involved with his daughter. His friend, the lawyer Harrigan, is equally disillusioned with the way his life and career have gone.

I had a difficult time getting into the story initially because there were, what seemed to me, too many "dark night of the soul" moments with O'Keefe and Harrigan. About half way through, O'Keefe rebounds from his deep depression over events at the mink farm and the story gets cracking again with a dramatic locaiton change and leading to a thrilling and very satisfying conclusion.

Mink Eyes does a slow build and takes time to set up O'Keefe's environment. I like the way the author goes into the day-to-day operations of a detective agency particularly regarding his office manager, Sarah. Sarah wants to get out of the office and into the field and work investigations in the field. O'Keefe has a "women must not be put into danger", parochial frame of mind. I think the author does a nice job with this and it's a theme worth exploring.

This is McBride's first novel and a good, solid, contribution to the private investigator genre. I think the ending of Mink Eyes sets up the potential for a sequel or two and I hope the author has that in mind as well. There are elements that could be expanded into more novels.

Review — Academic Affairs: A Poisoned Apple by Peter Likins

Jake Moffet, Sheriff of Flintstone County Alabama has a big problem. Jeremy Pilkington, Executive Dean for Academic Affairs at Chickamie Christian College is dead, poisoned by strychnine injected into an apple. "Follow the apple" seems like a surefire way to identify the killer quickly and Moffet rashly promises a speedy resolution which makes him the target of a hostile newspaper editor. Unfortunately, Jake and his small department (son Jackson and daughter Bonnie) find themselves faced with a floundering investigation as the list of suspects grows.

Academic Affairs is a fun little cozy and an enjoyable read. The setting is the mid-thirties in the small Alabama town of Sparta. The author infuses the story with the flavor of the time and place. Jake and his family are "come-heres" having moved to Alabama from Tennessee. In the south, where "who are your people" is a conversation opener, being an outsider can make acceptance problematic.

I want to avoid spoilers here but part of the fun of the story is the parallel —but unknown —investigation launched by some townspeople who just might have a better handle on things than the sheriff. You'll know what I mean when you read the story and for me this is the real heart of the book. I salute the author for this storyline which makes Academic Affairs different.

A minor character that I enjoyed is Kathy O'Halleran an ambitious Assistant Professor of English and Journalism who talked herself into a job as part-time reporter for the local paper. Kathy wants to be a big-time reporter and sees this case as a way to jump-start her career. The author has her using a 35mm camera. My first thought was "wait, I thought the Speed Graphic was the main press camera of the time". A little internet searching and it turns out that Kathy could indeed have used a 35mm camera which is just the thing that someone with her drive would have been drawn to—fast, very portable, no need to change film holders. It's a small detail but one that made me appreciate the author's approach to his story.

If you are looking for a cozy style book without sex and violence and suitable for a relaxed afternoon read then I can wholeheartedly recommend Academic Affairs: A Poisoned Apple. I hope the author follows up with another book.