Synopsis
Carl Wilcox finds himself the prime suspect in the murder of a less-than-respectable small-town tycoon, and what he uncovers in the course of clearing his name becomes surprise even to him.
Reviews
Still painting signs in Depression-era South Dakota, Carl Wilcox, introduced in The Man Who Was Taller Than God , finds himself in Podunkville where eggs are 11? a dozen and rooms are let at 50? a day. He rents one of the latter from the Widow Bower, but he isn't there one night before local "brute and bully" Basil Ecke turns up murdered next to Wilcox's Model T and the painter becomes the prime suspect. Ecke owned the local pharmacy and was a silent partner in a hotel in nearby Aquaville where he cavorted with a series of married women. Wilcox, a "boozing cowboy con" who sometimes substitutes as a cop, investigates "the wife beatings, the woman chasing, the tales of incest and possible murder" that suggest motives for the killing. Sharp dialogue and brisk characterization of familiar inhabitants of a small town where women are hard and men are weak add some substance to the thin plot. The murder weapon, a common domestic item, turns out to be more interesting than the unsurprising revelation of who wielded it.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Depression-era itinerate sign-painter (and ex-con) Carl Wilcox, stopping for a spell at the Widow Bower's rooming house in tiny Podunkville, South Dakota, has words with her neighbor, Basil Ecke, and becomes the likeliest suspect when Ecke's body is later found next to Carl's Model T. To prove his innocence, Carl moseys about town interviewing everyone who had a gripe with Ecke: his battered second wife; his daughter, about to be cut from his will for dating a no-account; his brother and sister-in-law, who think he killed his first wife and got away with it; several married ladies he was dallying with (and their husbands); his secret partner in a neighboring town's hotel; and his staff at the local pharmacy. Eventually, Carl pinpoints the murderer, suggests that the courts will rule it a justifiable homicide (self-defense), and wrings a confession with a newfangled forensic technique. Like last year's The Man Who Was Taller Than God, stronger on period ambiance than plot complexities--so little happens in Podunkville, and Adams depicts its tedium so clearly, that readers will clamor to hitch the first ride out of town. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Adams pares down his first-person narrative to the bare essentials necessary for verbal clue-gathering. Returning protagonist Carl Wilcox, an itinerant sign painter and ex-con ( The Man Who Was Taller Than God , Walker, 1992), passes through Podunkville, South Dakota just in time for police to accuse him of murdering a miserly wealthy businessman. Carl, no slugabed, offers his help to the police. His straight-to-the-point interrogations leave little room for action or description, but the dialog rings true, and the plot looks good. A tidy, bantam-weight contender.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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