Customer Reviews

Deadly Welcome

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"Deadly Welcome" is an oddly satisfying short novel. Odd in the sense that Macdonald breaks with the convention of the standard pulp mystery/adventure to emphasize surprisingly realistic character development over the tedium of casting suspicion upon every character. We have, for instance, a pretty fair idea of who the villain is early on and, while that may not add to the suspense, it certainly doesn't spoil the book either. The setting is a tiny Florida town that likes to think of itself as being known for its beachfront rather than its surrounding tangled swamp. It's close to being the same setting as "Cape Fear", "Key Largo", "River Rat", or the clunkier Sean Connery thriller "Just Cause". This story though is quite different than those and never easily settles into one genre or another. A State Department troubleshooter is assigned to return to the hometown he was expelled from after being framed for a robbery during a teen drinking binge years before. The hope is that he can gain access to and convince an ailing scientist mourning his wife's murder to return to defense work. It becomes clear though, to complete his task and get on with his own life, he must find and confront the murderer. Where other writers might poke fun and caricaturize the denizens of this rural town, Macdonald instills each with very human qualities. They are capable of surprising the reader (take into consideration the attitude of the stepmother upon Alex's return) and one cares about what happens to them. The subdued romance is also very realistic and remains interesting. Likewise, Macdonald deftly avoids pitfalls readers have come to expect (like not worrying about solving who had framed Alex years before) and instead works to please his audience with a continuously-gripping, well-written adventure.