Customer Reviews

Five Star First Edition Mystery - Death Is No Bargain

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I'm not usually an mystery reader, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not only was the story line compelling, but the subtext of the abortion debate was well-thought out and believable. Being a Chicagoan, I especially enjoyed the references to the city (very accurate, I might add). The language was descriptive without being overblown. It was definitely a book I wanted to stay up all night reading until I was finished. And I can't wait now for the next installment.

Reviewed by Regan Windsor for Reader Views (10/06)

A sign of a good mystery novel is one that keeps the reader guessing until the end. A brilliant author is able to successfully "go where no (wo)man dare go." Michael W. Sherer has managed to accomplish both in his novel "Death is No Bargain."

Emerson Ward, former stock broker, spends his days as a freelancer. For the most part he picks up freelance writing at a tolerable pace and spends the rest of his days in a relaxed and laid back pace having made enough as a stock broker to keep him comfortable between jobs. It's his other freelance work, however, that seems to keep him living close to the edge. By doing more favors for friends than actual jobs, Emerson has a knack for attracting himself to danger.

A year before Emerson had run into a disoriented young girl and brought her back to recoup and recover at his place before convincing her to find her way back home. Now her father has showed up on his doorstep ready to kill him for seducing and harboring his daughter who has once again run away. After escaping the near-death experience he finds himself unable to deny his help to the saner ex-wife. In the twists and turns of the ensuing events, Emerson soon finds himself dedicated to solving the mystery of her disappearance.

Michael W. Sherer tackles the complexities of pregnancy, abortions, adoptions, and shady connections to a Catholic convent. Although these events are at the forefront of the novel they are presented in a brilliantly uncontroversial way - simply as details for the reader to ponder and digest while diligently trying to determine "whodunit."

"Death is No Bargain" brings more to the reader than the thrill of a good mystery. It is brimming with controversial subject matter successful in transporting the reader to a higher level of intellectual stimulation. As the battles in Emerson's world ensue - so too do the battles within the reader.

Received book free of charge.

Chicago freelance writer Emerson Ward is an engaging sleuth of the new order, an amateur sensitive enough to care about what happens to victims and tough enough to chase down bad guys. When a teenage girl goes missing and her father accuses Emerson at gunpoint of being involved, Emerson takes matters into his own hands. Despite his best efforts to find her, though, she turns up dead, the vistim of a hit-and-run. Determined to find some small measure of justice and suspecting the worst, this Quixotic hero gives up everything, adopts an alternate identity and follows a twisted and deadly trail from a violent anti-abortion protest to a convent full of secrets. Author Michael W. Sherer's series has been likened to John D. McDonald's "Travis McGee" books. Here his nicely attuned balance of action, both physical and cerebral, has never been better.

About a year ago in Chicago, writer Emerson Ward saw the twenty-three years old waif look in trouble so he took her to his home and was nice to her while Ellen Forrester regained her equilibrium before she finally left after five days there. Now her father Larry arrives in a rage accusing Emerson of seducing his daughter and tries to kill him, but fails. Apparently Ellen has run away again.

A week later while Emerson and his girlfriend Nell ponder what to do about her pregnancy, Larry's former wife Audra Campbell asks him to find her missing daughter. Reluctantly he agrees because he feels a certain knight in shining armor mentality towards the lass. He starts at her private school, which leads to her friends and soon he learns she was pregnant but when he finds her she is dead. Emerson refuses to quit as he now needs to know who killed her.

This is an intriguing investigative tale as the hero is unable to stay on the sidelines following twisting clues where they take him to include violent encounters at abortion clinic and a strange weave involving the Catholic Church. The story line is action-packed beginning from the moment that an apparently very accurate shooter misses seven times (hitting Emerson's newly finished table, etc.) and never slows down as the sleuth follows a meandering trail that climaxes with a fabulous final spin. Fans will appreciate this solid murder mystery.

Harriet Klausner