Customer Reviews

Fiddle Game (A Herman Jackson Mystery)(Library Edition)

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For a first novel, "Fiddle Game" is quite an accomplishment. The author has led quite a varied career, including a 45-year stint in construction. He is a civil engineer, a certified Minnesota Building Official and a registered professional engineer. But nothing in his biography indicates he has ever written anything prior to this novel.

An Amati violin plays a central role in a con game conducted by a gypsy family and going on since World War II. Herman Jackson is a bail bondsman in St. Paul who becomes the latest victim of the con. A woman enters his office offering the valuable fiddle as security for a bond for her brother. Unfortunately she is soon the victim of a hit-and-run and dies. The killer escapes with the violin. Herman quickly attracts the interest of the police as the possible perpetrator. The plot then has Herman attempting to solve the murder and retrieve the fiddle.

The story is extremely well-told, moving to a most unexpected conclusion. It is a surprisingly welcome debut, and we hope it is not a one-shot from this author.

This is a very entertaining tongue in cheek bit of noir fiction. Its contemporary, so you wont imagine Bogart running around in an old Packard. But it has the feel of one of those old hollywood black and white masterpieces.

The "Fiddle Game" works well on several levels as long as you dont try to puzzle out the plot. The banter is first class. It was a joy to read the back and forth between Herman Jacson and his cronies. Jackson is a throwback bail bondsman who is maybe sucked into a Gypsie scam when a young lady comes in with a violin she uses as colateral. Following the story itself as you read is entertaining. The author, Richard Thompson pulls you this way and that, keeping you off balance and introducing sporadic characters at unique variables throughout the telling.

Now that I am finished reading, I can look back and see that a 'time-line' got sort of messed up early in the first chapters of the book. By this I mean that the hours seem to jump forwards and back, leaving the reader a little confused. Also, the plot either relies waaaayyyyy too much on happenstance. I am not a huge fan of when authors cut corners by introducing elements that allow for the story to reach a satisfactory conclusion... acting like crutches.

I am really looking forwards to reading more by this author and would enjoy reading more in this series as well.

Fiddle Game by Richard A. Thompson is a debut novel, but Thompson writes like an old pro. His protagonist, Herman Jackson, has been in the bail bonds business a long time, long enough to have seen it all. Or, nearly all, as he is flummoxed by a Gypsy woman trying to pay for her brother's bond with an antique violin. Even as Jackson suspects he's the victim of a con, he goes along with the proposal, hoping to work a few angles of his own. But although Jackson is an extremely savvy player, nobody has been running cons longer than the Gypsies. In fact, the mystery and intrigue of the violin goes back fifty years, to World War II Europe.

Herman Jackson is only 43, but seems older, not so much old fashioned as old school. And I mean that in the best sense of the word. Jackson has a sense of justice, a knowledge of the right way to do things, a low-key manner, and a healthy amount of chivalry that gets him into trouble as much as it endears him to the reader.

Jackson is soon on the run from both the gypsies and the law, which brings me to my only quibble about this fine novel. Jackson's allies in St. Paul---Agnes, Wide Track Wilke, and the Prof---are so wonderful that I wanted to see more of them, and was a bit sorry when Herman Jackson's adventures took him away from St. Paul, to Skokie, Illinois, home of the largest community of gypsies in North America. I just hope that these fun minor characters appear in a sequel!

Amy Cox visits bail bondsman Herman Jackson to arrange bail for her brother. She offers her violin that she claims is an original Amati valued at $60,000 as collateral. Although he normally would reject such an offer as he runs a cash-only business, he accepts the instrument in lieu of money even as he is not sure why he does.

Upon leaving his office, Amy visits a pawn shop to buy a replacement violin. Soon afterwards, someone kills Amy and the violin Herman held is stolen. Nothing adds up to Herman who wonders what is going on as he consults with waitress Rosie while worrying if the "brother" he bailed out will split and the violin he had is genuine; the truth lies in the past before either he or the late Amy was born.

Although too many twists make it difficult to accept the plausibility of the story line, readers will enjoy this fine bail bondsman mystery. The Herman-Rosie duo is a fabulous pairing as she pulls no punches when she advises him on the case. However, what is fascinating with this fine crime caper lies with the deep look at this particular segment of the private side of the government incarceration warehousing industry.

Harriet Klausner

I wasn't all that thrilled with this book beyond the sparkling dialog. The plot was initially intriguing, but quickly degenerated into a confused mishmash with no clear point and more than a little bigotry concerning gypsies. Frankly I am surprised that some Rom defamation league hasn't come forward on this one.

While many of the characters are great fun (Herman, Agnes, Wilkie and the Proph), too many are just walk-on, one dimensional bad guys with no other purpose except to pose as stereotypical rednecks, gypsies and /or bent cops. Some of them, like Rosie, are just annoying - she's a gun moll timewarped in from some old movie, and comes across like someone's hellraising grandmother though she's nowhere near that old. Supposedly.

This book is dated, dated, dated. Think Mickey Spillane upgraded with a cell phone. The Old Cons are not always the best, and this one should have stayed buried. Resurrecting it with a touch of Three Stooges slapstick (yuk yuk) just left me cold. Which is too bad, because this is an author of great talent. If only he could write present day fiction for the present day.