Early Eight: A Working Man's Mystery [Paperback]

L.T Fawkes (Author)

Book Description

Series: Working Man's Mystery | Publication Date: September 7, 2004

Terry Saltz is doing a decent job of getting his life back together. He's got an awesome double-wide trailer, and a sweet carpentry business in the making. But trouble seems to follow him everywhere-like that woman in the bar pool league who turned up dead. Must be time to solve another murder.

Editorial Reviews

Review

What a hoot! (Kasey Michaels, author of Maggie Needs an Alibi) You'll root for Terry Saltz --- an original trailer-living...guy with a knack for solving murder. (Sarah Strohmeyer, author of Bubbles in Trouble)

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Signet; Original edition (September 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451212851
• ISBN-13: 978-0451212856
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,716,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi,

Thanks for visiting my author page. I like funny stuff. If you like funny stuff too, we're probably gonna get along just fine.

Now available on Kindle:

COLD SLICE - Book one of my Terry Saltz Mysteries series

I know. The cover makes it look like it's a cookbook. It's not. It's a
mystery starring Terry Saltz -

"Here's me: Terry Saltz. Six-five. Twenty-six. Smart-a**. Long hair tied back with a piece of leather shoelace. Black mustache that tends to turn down at the ends. Plaid flannel shirts, and the elbows on most of them are threadbare or blown out altogether. Old faded jeans, and I didn't buy 'em that way. Work boots.
I'm a carpenter. I build stuff. I like the smell of sawdust. Put me up in the air walking a beam with a hammer in my hand and my tool belt riding low, thumpin' and bumpin', and I'm a happy man."

Also available on Kindle: the first three books of The Fillmore Chronicles series:

Fillmore to the Rescue
Fillmore Saves the Day
Fillmore Rides Again

The Fillmore Chronicles is a smart, funny series starring Mellie Shrop, a clueless young semi-celebrity heiress, and her unflappable personal assistant, Fillmore.
Early comments: Very funny, Love the characters.

Are you on Facebook? "Friend" me for updates and miscellaneous info - L. T. Fawkes!

I admire fine writing, which is why I'm collecting it on my website, L. T. Fawkes Reading Room, at http://ltfawkes.com/. The Reading Room is a non-profit (no ads, no pop-ups) collection of fiction ranging from short-short stories to full-length novels and features. It's not only my own stuff, but the work of writers I admire from all around the world.

L.T.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent, slightly unusual murder mystery, August 23, 2006

By 

Christopher E. Meadows "robotech_master_01" (Springfield, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Early Eight: A Working Man's Mystery (Paperback)

A decent little murder mystery with a bit of an unusual protagonist. Terry Saltz is a working man who one day made the mistake of getting drunk and high and committing some mayhem that got him sent to jail for a while. When he got out, he started putting his life back together, going on the wagon and getting some jobs as carpenter and part-time bouncer for a local bar and grill. And solving murders on the side.

Early Eight is the third murder mystery featuring this particular character, but enough backstory is filled in along the way that it's never an obstacle to getting involved with the characters and following the way the story goes. The mystery itself involves two simultaneous deaths--an attractive but self-centered woman strangled in her car after a pool tournament, and an older real-estate magnate planning to divorce his wife who perishes in a fatal auto accident. Is the accident murder? If so, are they connected? And did Terry's older brother Berk have anything to do with the crimes?

As murder mysteries go, this is a fun read. Far too often in literature, "working class" is synonymous with "stupid." It's interesting to see a mystery where working stiffs are portrayed not as rubes but as intelligent people in their own right. The motives, methods, and resolution are believable, and the story was fun.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More of an edge to this one..., October 11, 2004

By 

Wolfpack Jack "beerchaser" (Cary, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Early Eight: A Working Man's Mystery (Paperback)

I would like to have given this book 4.5 stars but Amazon doesn't allow that. So since Harriet Klausner (Who is this woman and how does she have time for all those reviews? Does she have no other life?) had already given it 5 stars, I opted for 4.

Early Eight definitely had a more edgy tone to it than Fawkes' first two books. Cold Slice and Lights Out both had kind of a warm and fuzzy feel to them; whereas this one is less so. However, I thought the whodunit aspect of Early Eight was much better than the previous books, as Fawkes did a much better job of holding the suspense out until near the end of the book. Good book, looking forward to the next Terry Saltz adventure.

Also a technical correction note to the author - on the Andy Griffith Show, I believe it was Barney Fife who said "Nip it in the bud", not Aunt Bea.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars - Well done., April 9, 2005

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Early Eight: A Working Man's Mystery (Paperback)

Slightly edgier, which I liked, than the previous two entries, Terry and his friends are blue collar, realistically written and fun to be among. L.T. Fawkes, actually Margo Dorkson, writes very good descriptions and dialogue. This is a well-done series and a great way to spend a day.