Stream of Death: An Ed McAvoy Mystery - Hardcover

Stackhouse, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1890208566 ISBN 13: 9781890208561

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr, 2001

Synopsis

A Catskills community is rocked by a dog who digs up a famous stolen diamond and Sicilians who have sworn a vendetta for a World War II crime. Sicily, World War II. The Allied landing has begun. Will the Italians fight with the Germans, or run? The answer leads a German officer to a murderous act and the theft of a Sicilian family heirloom. Ulster County, New York, the present. The Catskills community is the perfect, peaceful place for a widowed mother to raise her son, work in her brother's pub, and date the chief of police. Young Danny and his ace dog love to fish and make two friends, both old men, who share their stream with him. Nature's generosity and Danny's skill is such that fish becomes a regular menu item at the pub. All goes swimmingly until one day, the dog digs up a pouch containing the long missing Isabela Pendant. More shocking, someone soon shoots the senior gentleman, the one who is married to toothsome Cynthia. He falls into the stream, but a young Protestant priest fishes out the dying man and hears his last confession. Chief McAvoy would like to know what it was, but Fr. John's lips are sealed. In Greene County, just to the north, a luxurious retirement home houses Don Vittorio Gianelli, brother of the long dead Contessa whose dazzling diamond has now reappeared. Chief McAvoy finds this coincidence hard to swallow. But no matter how he prods, no information falls his way. In the end, like a fisherman, he relies upon guile to reel in his killer...

About this title

About the Author

Mystery writer, playwright, and part-time actor Bill Stackhouse has a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan, and a Masters Degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.

Bill and his very patient wife Arlene live in North Alabama in Big Cove where he works as a scriptwriter for a multimedia production firm and continues to write mystery novels and stage plays.

Reviews

Tying together a Sicilian pendant stolen during WWII, a triple murder and jewel heist in Detroit in the recent past, as well as buried treasure and murder in the present-day Catskills, Bill Stackhouse introduces a strong, likable new police hero in his debut novel, Stream of Death: An Ed McAvoy Mystery. When the body of an older man befriended by McAvoy's girlfriend's teenage son turns up in a river, the Ulster County, N.Y., police chief soon finds a trail leading from the victim's obliging fishing buddies to a vengeful mafioso. A playwright and scriptwriter, Stackhouse shows a sure touch in this blend of the hard-boiled and the lighthearted.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

If you ignore the atrocious title and some weak dialogue, this is a promising opening for a new series of mysteries featuring an attractive hero and a solid supporting cast. Ed McAvoy retired from the Detroit Police Department to become Police Chief of Peekamoose Heights, a small town buried deep in the Catskills. Peekamoose is stocked with the usual assortment of rural eccentrics who should help make future installments a lot of fun. In this outing, McAvoy investigates the murder of an irascible old codger who just happened to have a stolen multimillion-dollar diamond necklace buried on his farm. McAvoy gets considerable assistance from his hatchet-faced, bullhorn-voiced assistant, Lucille; his girlfriend, Stevie, the co-owner of a pub called the Plough & Whistle; and Stevie's son, Danny. Adding to the charm of Peekamoose Heights is the nearby nursing home that doubles as a fortress for retired Mafia chieftains. McAvoy initially suspects one of the dons of the murder but instead ends up indebted to him in a most unusual way for help in solving the crime. George Needham
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Cold-blooded murder and cold-hearted greed mark the "travels" of a fabulous 25-carat, rose-colored diamond, stolen by a Nazi officer in Sicily, then brought by way of Brazil to Detroit, where it's heisted again. By the time Danny Henderson's labrador digs it up near Peekamoose Heights in upstate New York, it still inspires the delayed vengeance of a Mafia don. Chief Ed McAvoy (Danny's mom's boyfriend) deals with the new spate of murder brought on by discovery of the gem. First-time author Stackhouse relies heavily on narrative backfill, but the plot and procedural elements are pretty interesting. For larger collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1890208566
• ISBN 13: 9781890208561
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 226