It's September 1958 and Ford is introducing the Edsel. It's a festive evening at the Ford-Lincoln dealership in Black River Falls, Iowa, until the body of Susie Squires is found in the trunk of one of the new cars. Murders in the small town are unusual, but particularly when the victim is the ex-wife of the former district attorney. Narrator Sam McCain, a young attorney who does investigative work for a local judge, is asked to conduct his own inquiry into the murder. The judge has an ongoing feud with the town's sheriff and doesn't buy his theory that the killer was an indigent ex-con. McCain finds plenty to indicate that others may have had both motive and opportunity. The second McCain novel is a prequel to last year's acclaimed The Day the Music Died , and master craftsman Gorman once again captures the essence of small-town 1950s life. McCain grew up with the victims, the suspects, and the witnesses, and he has plenty of preconceived notions about their ability to commit murder. If he is to catch the killer, though, he must substitute what he learns for what he thought he knew. It's a new way of looking at the world and a hard way to grow up. An excellent crime novel by any standards. Wes Lukowsky
From Kirkus Reviews
This prequel to The Day the Music Died (1999) kicks off with Ford dealer Dick Keys's unveiling of the ballyhooed 1957 Edsel, and his discovery of a woman's corpse in the trunk of one of his futuristic new cars, as dead as the Edsel soon will be. Before her date with automotive history, Susan Squires had worked her way up from Keys's receptionist to the county attorney's wife, making enough enemies along the wayfrom Dr. Todd Jensen, the boyfriend she spurned for politically-minded David Squires, to Squires's embittered ex Amythat practically the entire population of Black River Falls, Iowa, might as well be sweating under Police Chief Cliff Sykes's bright lights. But the trigger-happy chief has a more modest goal: to wring a confession out of Mike Chalmers, an ex-con Squires has an old grudge against. The harder Sykes and Squires push against Chalmers, the harder Sykes's blue-blooded old enemy, Judge Esme Anne Whitney, and her investigator, Sam McCain, push back, until there's a kidnaping and another murder, and McCain's hopeless romantic tanglecounter girl Mary Travers loves him, but he loves Whitney's secretary Pamela Forrest, who loves family man Stu Grantlooks welcome by comparison. Again, the joyously precise period detail is the main attraction in this shrewd, affectionate slice of Americana (though sharp-eyed readers may wonder if Ma Bell had area codes as early as 1957). The governor of Iowa should give veteran Gorman the key to the state. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
“A story with bite and substance.” —Chicago Tribune on The Day the Music Died
“Genuinely affecting.” —The Wall Street Journal on The Day the Music Died
“Gripping, amusing, thoughtful and hugely entertaining.” —Dean Koontz on The Day the Music Died
About the Author
Ed Gorman (b. 1941) is an American author best known for writing mystery novels. After two decades in advertising, he began publishing novels in the mid-1980s. While using the pen name Daniel Ransom to write popular horror stories like Daddy’s Little Girl (1985) and Toys in the Attic (1986), he published more ambitious work under his own name, starting with Rough Cut (1986). A story about murder and intrigue inside the advertising world, it was based on his own experience, and introduced Midwestern private detective Jack Dwyer, a compassionate sleuth with a taste for acting.
Gorman’s other series characters include Robert Payne, a psychological profiler, and Leo Guild, a bounty hunter of the Old West, but his best-known character is probably Sam McCain, a gentle young sleuth of the 1950s, who first appeared in The Day the Music Died (1998). Besides writing novels, Gorman is a cofounder of Mystery Scene magazine.
