Customer Reviews

Five Star First Edition Mystery - Echoes of the Lost Order: A Steve and Victoria Mackinnon Mystery

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

 

 

Steve MacKinnon is a small-town police chief in Virginia. He is also a Civil War reenactor in his spare time.

The dead body of a woman dressed in a confederate uniform is found during a reenactment festival in town, MacKinnon gets to use his experience as a San Diego homicide detective to solve the case in-house, rather than farm it out to the state police as had been done before he was hired.

A mole in the police department, an antagonistic mayor, and several suspects lead MacKinnon up and down the east coast chasing leads.

At the heart of this mystery is a document known as the Lost Order, a Confederate order that made its way into Union hands and led to the battle of Antietam.

Lamb, also a former California homicide detective now living in small-town Virginia, uses his past experience to bring this first novel to life. This book was "stay-up-all-night-to-finish-it" good. Not only did I get a great mystery but I also learned a lot about Civil War battlefields, antiquities, and reenactments.

Armchair Interviews says: A highly recommended read. Several excellent twists and turns leave the reader guessing right up to the end. What more can you ask of a mystery!

A great police procedural by a retired policeman that will grab you and take you on a rollercoaster ride. Fun from beginning to end and exceptionally well written. And if you haven't read the "Teddy Bear" books, by John Lamb, you are missing more great reading.

John J.Lamb is a great author. I have all of his other mystery novels he's written and his writing style is great. I love how he uses some places that are real but also adds fiction to it. I look foreward to any
book he comes out with.

Take this same plot and put it in the hands of a talent such as James Lee Burke or Earl Emerson and you would have the makings of a masterpiece. Unfortunately this author's skill is not quite up to his imagination. It surely isn't the worst writing I've come across, not by a long stretch; in fact, it's good enough that I would strongly encourage the author to continue working at his craft, with some emphasis on character development, story arc and avoiding cliches. I am not averse to buying another book from this author, particularly if the author works on these issues.