Customer Reviews

Family Matters: An Ernest "Sparky" Hemingway Mystery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a return visit to Hardwood, North Dakota, where neighbors know everything about each other, but have the good grace to pretend that they don't.

Reprising his role as lead character from "Home Front," Ernest "Sparky" Hemingway again finds his quiet life as a copyeditor disturbed by events beyond his control.

This isn't political intrigue on the national or international level; it's local -- small-town local -- which makes it even more intense and consuming for those it affects.

Grab a mug of your favorite hot beverage, curl up in a comfortable chair, and enjoy an engaging read about big goings-on in a small place that these people call home.

I read the other review and couldn't disagree more. First of all, this is a sequel-read Home Front first! You could just pick this book up and read it, but you know more about the characters if you read the first one. Also, it is a small-town plot that takes place in a small-town. If you are looking for non-stop action/explosions etc-it's probably not for you. On the other hand, I never wanted to put it down-and I picked it back up as soon as I could until I finished it.

This book is about small time life and the importance of friends/family. The main character is a loveable old codger that mostly wants to be left alone but things keep cropping up that interfere with his simple life.

I sure as heck hope there is another sequel in the works, because I like these people so much. It leaves you with a "homey" feeling and makes you want more.

I liked this book and I really like Sparky Hemingway, the central character and his girlfriend and his adopted daugher. I didn't have any problem with the various names (and Snake, the name of his dog, was _his_ nickname in Nam, not a friend's nickname)

This wasn't exactly a mystery. It has a similar relationship to the mystery genre that the Travis McGee novels do. That isn't a bad thing. The story told by the previous book and this book set up a situation where there could be many more Sparky Hemingway mysteries. Which would be a good thing. Some of them might be more tradional whodunits.

On the other hand, I don't know that the books have found an audience. If they haven't, Joel will probably go back to writing SF and Fantasy. So I win either way.

I liked book one better because it had a deeper more dangerous mystery. The character descriptions and dialog are simply a must read. If you liked Home Front, then get off your duff and read this book. Find out what is happening back in the town and how things are settling in.

There are, however, a few unfortunate things going on in the town and Sparky is just the guy to nail it down.

I really like this book and the first (Home Front) ne in what I hope is long series.

These books makee me think of Jules Clement series by Jamie Harrison with it setting in a small town out in the wide open spaces of the upper Midwest and with other mystery novels driven by the characters' and setting like in the Montana Mystery series featuring Gabriel Du Pre by Peter Bowen and Tony Hillermans books in southwest. If you like this book then I bet you like these and vice a versus

I bought this book thinking it was written by Joel C. Rosenberg. Actually, it was Joel (without a C.) Rosenberg. It is an OK book in a quirky sort of way, with no real point other than having a lifetime bond with your former tank crew from Vietnam can complicate an otherwise boring life in a small town in North Dakota. The book has some amusing moments, but would have been far more enjoyable without the off-color language that pervades nearly every page. You can best gauge the pace of this book by knowing that the most memorable character is "Snake", a really laid-back German Shepard that spends most of its time taking "dumps". To sum it up in "Seinfeld terms" Family Matters is basically a book about nothing.

I read this book based on a short review in a library publication. I ended up getting more irritated as I muddled through it. Little things, like the main character has a dog named Snake and an old friend, also named Snake. There's a character named Thompsen as well as a nearby town of the same name. The main character is an Ernest Hemingway, and he has a friend named Doc Holliday.... oh please.

But it's the plot that was maddening. Hardwood (where Hemingway lives) and Thompsen (or "Thompson" as it was misprinted early on) are competing to attract a new trauma center. To create bad publicity for one of the towns, there's a plot to accuse Hemingway of feloniously impersonating a police officer. To get him off the hook and to make an impression on the decision-makers, his town's leaders concoct a scheme to make him the police chief, thus avoiding prosecution and having a more mature man as chief. Endless pages are devoted to this. There's a side plot involving his foster daughter that doesn't help.

There's also a lot of obsessing about little things: the displaced chief's attitude towards Hemingway; Hemingway's work as a copy editor; and from the "beating a dead horse" school, how to keep a cop from Thompsen from getting into trouble for being outside his jurisdiction. Once again, they make a big deal of this and swear the cop in as a Hardwood officer. Gee, does this sound familiar?

All in all, a very disappointing book.