The Day the Music Died: A Mystery - Hardcover

Gorman, Edward

3.57

355 ratings by Goodreads

9780786220328: The Day the Music Died: A Mystery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786220325 ISBN 13: 9780786220328

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 1999

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Sam McCain, an impoverished young lawyer in 1950s Iowa, is summoned from his grief over the death of Buddy Holly to investigate an uxoricide

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Review:

Veteran mystery writer, editor, and anthologist Ed Gorman plays all the right notes in his latest book--hopefully the first of a promising period series. It's 1959 (the book says 1958, but that must be a mistake, because everyone knows Buddy Holly died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959), and Sam McCain--"a young lawyer in a town that already had too many lawyers"--is working as an investigator in Black River Falls, Iowa, for Judge Esme Anne Whitney, a wealthy and eccentric old woman who smokes Gauloises in Chesterfield country and takes pleasure in shooting McCain with rubberbands while they confer.

The day after a long drive to and from what turns out to be Buddy Holly's last concert before his fatal plane crash, McCain finds the murdered wife of Judge Whitney's rotten nephew, Kenny, and then is unable to stop Kenny from killing himself. Everybody, including the town's loutish police chief, is sure that Kenny killed his wife--only McCain has his doubts.

Complicating things are the troubles of a local black former football star now crippled by booze, and those of McCain's teenage sister who is trying to abort her baby. The period details about race and sex seem dead right; the people of Black River Falls, especially McCain's family and various girlfriends, are all sharply-sketched; and even the very late appearance of a possible villain can't spoil the considerable fun.

Previous examples of Gorman's craft, or sullen art, include Daughter of Darkness, Black River Falls, Dark Trail, The First Lady, Hawk Moon, The Marilyn Tapes, Senatorial Privilege, Trouble Man, and Cage of Night. --Dick Adler

About the Author:

Ed Gorman is an award winning American author best known for his crime and mystery fiction. He wrote The Poker Club which is now a film of the same name directed by Tim McCann.

He has written under many pseudonyms including "E. J. Gorman" and "Daniel Ransom." He won a Spur Award for Best Short Fiction for his short story "The Face" in 1992. His fiction collection Cages was nominated for the 1995 Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection. His collection The Dark Fantastic was nominated for the same award in 2001.

He has contributed to many magazines and other publications including Xero, Black Lizard, Cemetery Dance, the anthology Tales of Zorro, and many more.

Visit his blog at newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com

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