Customer Reviews

Huckleberry Fiend

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I have habitually read mysteries for the last 11 years. In that time I've become especially fond of women writers on the gendre who write about female protagonists. I also enjoy books which feature California. However, All that aside I was constantly laughing out loud while reading this book. It's more than enjoyable, it's a must read.

This 1987 mystery by Julie Smith accomplishes very well the job of a literary-based mystery, if that job is to get the reader longing to read the source material on which it riffs. In this case, that book is Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- an American classic lately turned controversial due to the language Twain uses to portray slave ownership in mid-1800's U.S. society.

The protagonist of Huckleberry Fiend is Paul McDonald -- free-lance journalist, aspiring novelist, and newly-minted half home-owner. Paul lives in the downstairs flat of the house he just bought, while the upstairs flat is inhabited by co-owner and lady love Sardis Kincannon. Sardis and Paul juggle romance with freedom by buying a house together yet living separately, not even exchanging keys.

Paul's friend Booker, a well-to-do burglar with Daddy issues, winds up with a burgled copy of a manuscript that may very well be a hand-written first draft of Huckleberry Finn. But the very day after Booker steals the manuscript, its burgled owner is found dead. Coincidence? Booker fears not, and hires Paul to find out who rightfully owns the papers, and who wants them so much he or she will murder to acquire them.

Huckleberry Fiend quotes from Twain's novel as well as provides a wealth of information about Twain himself (Samuel Clemens) and the fascinating subculture of book collectors and Mark Twain aficionados.

In the course of his investigation, Paul will meet up with eccentric Mark Twain collectors Pamela Temby, a romance writer of a certain age; Herb Wolf, film producer with a predisposition towards violence and a gourmet appetite; Rick Debay, antiquarian bookstore owner who keeps impecunious literary author Jenny Swensen on staff to impress his clients; and Tom Sawyer, yes Tom Sawyer -- a man who has his name legally changed from Tom Sayers to Tom Sawyer and then converts his home to a Mark Twain museum where he lovingly recreates full-size tableaux from Huckleberry Finn. Along the way, Paul will also re-acquaint himself with Twain's masterpiece and navigate the perilous waters of romance with Sardis.

Halfway through reading the book, I said to my husband, "As soon as I finish this, I want to re-read Huckleberry Finn." That's the mark of a good literary mystery! Huckleberry Fiend is a light mystery, fun to read, with enough sadness to it to give it some heft.

Three murders will be solved in the course of Huckleberry Fiend. But only one character will learn more about his father's love life than he ever wished to know...