Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: A Sam McCain Mystery [Hardcover]

Ed Gorman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2004

Marital infidelity, murder, and the threat of nuclear holocaust hangs over the heartland in the sixth installment of the popular Sam McCain mystery series. Certainly not dull is October 1962, not with Russian Premier Nikita Krushchev promising to launch Soviet nuclear weaponry from Cuba if the U.S. attempts to invade the island. For seven taut days, since the 22nd, the Kennedy White House has been facing down the Soviets with an ultimatum to dismantle their Cuban missile bases at once. Meanwhile, in Black River Falls, Iowa, private investigator Sam McCain has been dealing with a crisis of different sort. Candy Sykes is no dream client. Not only is she brassy, loud, and boorish, but she's also the daughter of McCain's longtime nemesis, the incompetent local police chief Cliffie Sykes. Nor does anyone, except Cliffie, doubt she could have killed her faithless husband. And taking no nyet for an answer, Cliffie is demanding that Sam prove him right, the town wrong, and Candy innocent. Or else.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The sixth Sam McCain novel from Shamus-winner Gorman (Save the Last Dance for Me, etc.) trades on Cold War fears and the repercussions from the political and social issues of a bygone era. It's late October 1962, the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the townsfolk of Black River Falls, Iowa, are huddled in churches waiting for nuclear annihilation. When gubernatorial candidate Ross Murdoch pays McCain to look over his bomb shelter, McCain discovers the body of a recently murdered young woman, Karen Hastings. The four suspects in the killing are all prosperous, well-respected locals who had been sexually involved with the dead woman. As if this weren't enough, two of McCain's past loves are undergoing simultaneous divorces. The mystery plot is less engrossing, however, than the period Gorman evokes in such Proustian detail: a soda fountain with "the old ice cream chairs and the crooked paperback rack that squeaked when you turned it around"; the exact look, feel and circumference of a bomb shelter; and, best of all, "the ancient Rialto theater" regularly showing the works of the "holy trinity" of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy. It's a fast, entertaining read, but when it's over, all that's left is a reservoir of good feelings and pervasive nostalgia for a time that may strike many readers as positively idyllic from today's perspective.
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From Booklist

In late October 1962, with Armageddon looming in the form of the Cuban missile crisis, life went on in Black River Falls, Iowa--except in the case of a young woman found murdered in gubernatorial candidate Ross Murdoch's under-construction bomb shelter. His political dreams dashed, Murdoch hopes to avoid the electric chair and hires young investigator-attorney Sam McCain to represent him. McCain is dismayed to learn that his client was one of four prominent citizens who shared the victim's services as mistress. Can the unflappable McCain solve the murder and prevent the town's corrupt police chief from ramrodding the case as payback for Murdoch's longtime political opposition? The sixth Sam McCain case continues to build on the series' foundation of realism tinged with nostalgia. It may seem as though Beaver Cleaver could have grown up in Black River Falls, but if he had, Ward would have a drinking problem, June might be looking a little strange, and Wally might come home from 'Nam with a bad habit or two. Intelligent writing and great reading. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (February 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786712961
• ISBN-13: 978-0786712960
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,410,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another good Sam McCain mystery from Ed Gorman, July 13, 2005

By 

Joseph P. Menta, Jr. (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: A Sam McCain Mystery (Hardcover)

While in the end I wrote a generally positive review of the previous mystery in this series, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," the review nevertheless had a bit of a tossed-off and dismissive quality to it, which maybe wasn't quite fair. After all, a light, breezy, engaging mystery story isn't easy to produce, even if the author makes it LOOK easy. And this story, like the earlier one I read, is a light, breezy, engaging mystery story that I easily recommend.

Three plotlines quickly move along in the story's 252 pages (I read the paperback edition): a mystery story involving a dead woman found in a local bigwig's basement; the dramatic escalation of the Cuban missile crisis, which serves as the story's backdrop; and the romantic trials and tribulations of investigator and lead character Sam McCain. Mr. Gorman skillfully bounces between these various story elements, and also effectively intertwines them.

I also liked how, despite the story's 1962 setting, the author doesn't hit us over the head with dense details of the period, and endless observations of that time. Too much of that sort of thing often severely slows down the pacing of period thrillers, but that doesn't happen here. Mr. Gorman keeps the story front and center, and the period stuff secondary. For, while there's certainly a place for period mysteries that go on for 500 pages and also function as historical documents of the period (Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" and James Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential" spring to mind here), it's also nice to have a period mystery series that strives to deliver a light, fast read, too.

As of this writing, there are six mysteries in the Sam McCain series, and I've read the last two. I definitely plan to seek out the first four book in this series, and hope he writes more.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong and engaging mystery, May 2, 2004

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: A Sam McCain Mystery (Hardcover)

It's 1962, Russia and the U.S. are lurching toward war over the Cuban Missile Crisis, and detective/lawyer Sam McCain two strange offers in one day. First, a stranger offers him way too much money to deliver a package. Second, one of the Iowa town's rich men--a candidate for Governor, hires Sam to take a look in his bomb shelter. It turns out that the two offers are interconnected--the dead body in the bomb shelter is the woman Sam was supposed to deliver the package to. The police have no problems with the case--the candidate must have killed his mistress. But Sam knows that reality is often more complicated than the police let on.

Sam mixes noire detective grit with a bit of sensitivity as he tries to track down other candidates for the murder--and there are plenty. The evil brother and the dead woman's other boyfriends are additional candidates. When he's not busy detecting, he tries to straighten out his own life. The woman he always loved is thinking about getting a divorce--and is interested in Sam for the first time. Adding to the complexity, the woman who was always in love with Sam is getting a divorce too--and she wants Sam too. Then there's the candidate's pretty daughter. It makes for an interesting life.

Author Ed Gorman brings the early 1960s to life in a convincing but sympathetic manner. Small-town bousterism, hypocritical morality, and narrow-minded snobbery are all there, but so is a certain warmth and caring--heightened by the impending end of the world that the Cuban crisis threatens.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO mixes some nice twists with engaging characters and some insights into the world--pretty good for a short detective mystery. I recommend this one.

5.0 out of 5 stars great read, May 27, 2010

By 

Susan Beckett - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: A Sam McCain Mystery (Hardcover)

Gorman is fast becoming one of my new favorites. Books are writted in the golden age of detective stories.