Presence of Mind - Hardcover

Hunter, Fred

3.7

27 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802732453 ISBN 13: 9780802732453

Publisher: Walker & Co, 1994

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When veteran Chicago police detective Jeremy Ransom fails to crack his latest case--the murder of a man with no known enemies--he teams up with seventy-something Emily Charters, who believes she has the clue he needs to solve the crime

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From Booklist:

Once in a while, life offers a pleasant surprise: a new restaurant, the return of miniskirts, a glimpse of Michael Jordan on the street. Or, even better, finding a new author. This entertaining first novel features Chicago police detective Jeremy Ransom. He and partner Gerald White can't get a handle on the death of lawyer Lawrence Watson. Who would want to kill this quintessential average guy? His wife didn't like him, but she has an alibi and is rich in her own right. He got along with his business associates, and his clients respected him. Ransom, settling in for some Holmesian musing, is startled to see elderly Emily Charters standing before him. She and her friend Meg had recently been among a handful in the audience at a performance by an amateur theater group. Meg died unexpectedly shortly afterward. Then Emily recognized Watson's picture in the paper. He was also at the play, as was another recently murdered woman. Initially skeptical, Ransom soon forges a bond with Charters that eventually results in the solution to a very tricky case. Hunter's debut effort is cleverly plotted, and his sleuthing duo, Ransom and Charters, make a great team, reminiscent in some ways of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Great fun. Wes Lukowsky

From Publishers Weekly:

Meet Jeremy Ransom, a veteran homicide detective in Chicago who considers most of his partners "twits" and is currently rereading Dickens, a chapter or two of Bleak House while soaking in the tub at the end of the day. He sounds unlikely but is, in fact, the charmingly believable center of playwright Hunter's debut novel. Three recent, seemingly random murders are connected when elderly Emily Charters identifies the victims as fellow members of the audience at a performance of Love's Labour Lost at a small North Side storefront theater. Emily goes to the police with her observation, but only after more killings does Ransom finally believe that the audience must have witnessed something that incriminates the killer. An array of predictable motivations--naked ambition, artistic devotion, unrequited love--are planted among the suspects and the overplayed resolution reveals the killer in a light that doesn't jibe with earlier presentations. Despite these flaws, Hunter achieves a certain freshness with his material, mostly by means of Ransom's consistent, credible eccentricity and the warm portrayal of plucky, uncertain Emily Charters.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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