Customer Reviews

Highway Robbery

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

 

 

Highway Robbery is even better than Contrary Blues which was outstanding. Mixes life, mystery, humor, and romance with almost perfect pitch. Usually I am a little disappointed with the answer at the end of a mystery novel. This time I was not. The twists and turns were cleverly constructed. And the tale is witty and insightful with out the mystery.

'Highway Robbery', the second in the 'Owen Allison' murder Mystery series, demonstrates that author John Billheimer is not content to just weave an amusing yarn, but has the ability to surprise and satisfy the reader with a writing style that belies the fact that this is only his second book.

While retaining the down home style of his first novel that found favor with readers, Billheimer paints a fast paced story that delivers enough tension to keep the reader interested until the mystery is solved. But readers who quit at that point will miss a stunning ending. Don't put it down until you've read the last page!

This is a well written, creative story, that I highly recommend. I give it four of five stars.

October 2, 2000

By Steve Forbes Editor-in-Chief

ROAD RAGE

Highway Robbery--by John Billheimer (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95). A wonderful blend of numerous, superbly developed--and often eccentric--characters; wry, politically incorrect humor; surprises and suspense, spiced with some of West Virginia's legendary skulduggery-encrusted politics makes for an always interesting murder mystery. Our California-based hero, Owen Allison, is suddenly called home to West Virginia by his mother. She suspects that a skeleton uncovered by a road construction crew is that of her late husband (and Owen's father), who supposedly drowned in a flood decades ago. Owen's father was that true West Virginia rarity--an honest highway commissioner. He and his scruples didn't sit well with plenty of pols and contractors. The mother's hunch about the body is wrong, but she's dead right about her husband's having been the victim of foul play. As Owen discovers, several people have skeletons they'd like to keep hidden in the closet.

This is Billheimer's second mystery. Read it, and you'll be looking for his first--and praying he turns out more like these.

In California, Owen Allison struggles to restart his business as well as hoping that he and his ex-wife Judith can make a go of it the second time around. However, everything is placed on hold when his mother pleads with him to return home to help his brother George with some problems.

Owen returns to Barkley, West Virginia to learn that the human remains found by a construction crew may be that of his father who drowned over three decades ago when a dam broke.

Instead, the bones belong to the father of Owen's childhood friend Bobby. George, as the state Highway Commissioner, is being pressured to accept projects he feels are undependable but he refuses. Soon George is arrested for the murder of an environmental activist. Owen places his own life in jeopardy trying to prove the innocence of his sibling.

John Billheimer has written an entertaining down home mystery in which the "good ole boys" star in a thirty-five-year-old murder case. Owen is a nice person with a droll sense of humor that makes him likable. Judith plays a minor role that helps the audience understand Owen better. HIGHWAY ROBBERY is a delight due to the plausibility of the present and past killings, which in turn allows the reader to further focus on Owen, who deserves future appearances.

Harriet Klausner

I have no idea why I picked up this book in the first place--I found it lurking in my TBR pile so I gave it a chance. I'm very glad I did.

The good:
The way the hero uses engineering to solve the mystery.
The political details were realistic and infuriating.

The bad:
Can't really find anything.

The excellent:
The characterizations. The characters were a lot more three-dimensional and emotionally complex than I'd have expected from a simple mystery novel.

The verdict:
I'll be looking for the rest of John Billheimer's books, and this time they won't be sitting in my TBR pile forever.

Billheimers books are fun and suspenseful. His West Virginia settings make his books unique.