2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
6th entry in Fever Devlin series another beautifully told tale, July 26, 2008
This review is from: The Drifter's Wheel: A Fever Devilin Novel (Fever Devlin Mysteries) (Hardcover)
The Drifter's Wheel by Phillip DePoy is the sixth book in his fabulous Fever Devlin series. Fever was a college professor teaching about folk tales when in a political mess he lost his position. Fever returned home to Blue Mountain, Georgia and has been running into murders and strange doings ever since. It's gotten so that every time a dead body shows up, people look to Fever for answers. I absolutely adore this mystery series. It's unusual in its love for things past. Fever is a a bit obsessed with folk tales and songs, so bits and pieces of them tend to bleed into every investigation. He an an encyclopedic knowledge, and what he doesn't know, good friend Shakespearean professor Winton Andrews does. Every exchange between these two friends is a treasure. In this story, a man claiming to be over a hundred years old shows up in Fever's home one night with a strange story about brothers killing brothers and the creation of the Tango. Fever is fascinated at first and then frightened when the man starts waving a gun. When Fever calls the police, the man disappears into the night, only to turn up dead the next morning. But the body doesn't look exactly like the intruder, so Fever and Andrews are off to investigate one hundred years of fratricide. DePoy's descriptions of the landscape are lyrical, and the mystery, as usual, raises more questions than it answers.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A difficult and unrewarding read, October 29, 2010
This review is from: The Drifter's Wheel: A Fever Devilin Novel (Fever Devlin Mysteries) (Hardcover)
I like mysteries. This is my first by this author. I found the plot hard to get into and difficult to follow. It became for me a forced read. I use Amazon a lot to select books based on the reviews of others. This was one of the few times I found the ratings and comments so out of line with my own reading experience.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Okay middling novel, July 27, 2009
This review is from: The Drifter's Wheel: A Fever Devilin Novel (Fever Devlin Mysteries) (Hardcover)
"The Drifter's Wheel" is Phillip DePoy's fifth novel in his series about Fever Devilin a southern folklorist who seems to spend his time between interviewing mountain locals about their and their community's past, and solving murders.
This time around Devilin is waylaid coming into his house by a young man who claims to have fought in the First World War, and tells an old story of fratricide and betrayal. The man keeps waving an old gun around, and seems seriously disturbed. Devilin manages to keep him talking and finally gets to the phone and calls the local sheriff. The man manages to disappear while Devilin's back is turned, only to have somebody, who is obviously related to him, turn up dead in the mysterious man's clothes.
And so goes the mystery, who is the dead man, and who is the mysterious young man, who claims to be Truck Jackson? And why had Truck previously talked to Devilin's fiancé claiming to be a man who had fought in the civil war and who had murdered his brother, and why had Truck also talked to Devilin's unstable neighbor claiming to have fought in the Second World War. It was during this conversation with the neighbor that the neighbor's old pistol had disappeared and may have been used to murder the found man.
I have to be honest, I never try to figure out who did what in these cozies; I just go along for the ride. The fun is in the trip to the conclusion of the tale. The problem is that the set-up gives you hints of the supernatural, which is what drew me to this book, and it just ain't here, as the ending is rather banal.
The mystery in and of itself though would probably make a decent tv movie, although not much more than that. The basic problem is the characters. Devilin is alright, although I would have liked to have seen his job as a folklorist have had a more direct influence on the mystery itself, although it does help solve the crime. While DePoy tries for quirky in his characters, he ends up with a lot of cardboard characters right out of central casting. There's the redneck hillbilly moonshiner wanting to shoot first and ask questions later, the intolerant bible thumping old biddy, the broken and persecuted daughter, the unstable neighbor, etc. The worst though is Devilin's best friend Winton Andrews, who is supposed to be Devilin's sidekick, and the novel's comic relief, but who is just annoying and acts like an ass.
In the end, while the novel's main mystery is a bit convoluted, it kept my attention, but I can't see myself reading anymore of DePoy's mysteries in the future. Giving credit where credit is due, I liked the cover.
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