Customer Reviews

The Marathon Murders (A Greg McKenzie Mystery)

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Greg and Jill McKenzie, owners of McKenzie Investigations, feel obligated to help when Colonel Warren Jarvis asks them to take on the case of his good friend Kelli Kane. Kelli needs the McKenzies to help clear the name of her great-great-grandfather Sydney Liggett. Back in 1914 he was accused of embezzling funds from Marathon Motor Works.

Pierce Bradley, a construction supervisor at the former Marathon Motors building, found papers belonging to Sydney Liggett which would have exonerated him, but he disappeared before the papers could be turned over to the DA. Bradley called Kelli's grandfather and set up a meeting to hand over the papers. Unfortunately Bradley can't be located now.

Not long after the McKenzies being to investigate, Bradley's body is found submerged in a lake. The papers he claimed he found are still missing. To make matters worse, more people connected to the investigate end up dead. There aren't many clues to go on, but the McKenzies are committed to do everything they can to find those papers. Can they find them before more people die? Can they find them without putting themselves in danger?

I love this series. Jill and Greg are such lovable characters. The plot is well constructed, and the setting is terrific. Such a great cozy mystery series. The author has done a fabulous job of setting up the story and creating characters that are believable. I enjoyed learning about the Marathon cars as well.

I highly recommend this book and series. I found myself having trouble putting it down.

When Colonel Warren Jarvis asks Greg and Jill McKenzie, owners of McKenzie Investigations, to take on the case of his good friend Kelli Kane, they readily agree. Jarvis was instrumental in one of their former cases and the McKenzies feel indebted to him. Kelli needs the McKenzies' help in clearing the name of her great-great-grandfather Sydney Liggett, accused of embezzling funds from Marathon Motor Works in 1914. Kelli's grandfather recently received a phone call from Pierce Bradley, a construction supervisor at the former Marathon Motors building, who found papers belonging to Sydney Liggett which would have exonerated Liggett had he not disappeared before he could turn them over to the DA. And now Bradley is nowhere to be found. The McKenzies have barely begun their investigation when Bradley's body is discovered submerged in a lake, but the papers he claimed to have come across are missing. The McKenzies hope to recover the papers, but nothing seems to jell and, to make matters worse, people connected to the investigation are ending up dead. The only clue: a Russian cigarette stub found at each crime scene.

This fourth installment of the Greg McKenzie Mysteries is proof positive the series remains strong and fresh and is a major contender in the mystery venue. Greg and Jill McKenzie are a nice pairing, an amiable blend against the shady backdrop of murder and deceit. This well-plotted cozy is sure to please its fans and lure even more into its fold, the not-so-easily-guessed mystery one readers will enjoy trying to solve.

Picked this up thinking it might be a good read and quality characters to follow in his other books. I'm an avid reader of suspense novels (military, police, espionage and so on)and enjoy repeat characters in an on-going series of novels. This book (and the characters) failed to deliver. Marginal at best. The writing style was amateurish compared to what I normally read. It's as if the book was written for high school students as reading material. The chapters were kept short. The story plodded along and never gained any traction. Basically a 'simple' book. Sorry, but I wont be spending any more time with Mr Campbell.

Reading Chester Campbell's The Marathon Murders is like going to dinner with good friends you haven't seen in awhile. In this book, Greg McKenzie and his wife, Jill, have honed their private detecting skills and acquired the kind of teamwork that comes only with experience.

The mystery involves a long-hidden murder tied to the old Marathon Motorworks factory in Nashville. Although the book is a work of fiction, Campbell does a good job of tying modern events to the actual history of the factory. As always, the writing is polished and the plot nicely conceived.

Greg is a senior sleuth worth following.

"The Marathon Murders" is a continuation of Chester Campbell's series of the Greg McKenzie mysteries. Greg McKenzie is a retired U.S. Air Force Officer turned private investigator. In his latest case, he finds that an unsolved mystery from the past has reached into the future to claim yet another victim.
A set of accidently discovered (but purposely concealed) stash of missing documents from the year 1914 bring ill-fated consequences to the man who discovers them. This set of missing papers from the once viable and prospering Marathon Motor Works sets in motion a paper trail that is sure to keep the reader intrigued and guessing in a story filled with mislaid blame and greed.
Was Sidney Liggett guilty of embezzlement and murdered because of it? Or was he an innocent, framed in order to conceal another's wrongdoing? That's what his now elderly grandson, Arthur Liggett, wants McKenzie Investigations to prove.
Mr. Campbell's writing style is fluid and connected which keeps the story flowing smoothly. This continuity in telling the story affords the reader the chance to get lost in the experience of the read. The dialogue is uncomplicated and realistic. It gives the reader the impression that they are eavesdropping on an actual conversation.
The reader will especially enjoy the connection and chemistry between McKenzie and his partner in life and work, Kelly--his wife of forty years. Their partnership and vested interest in the safety of one another adds an element of apprehension and excitement to the story.
To lovers of mysteries in search of a good intrigue, I wholeheartedly recommend "the Marathon Murders" by Chester D. Campbell.

Mr. Campbell creates a cozy world of mystery with this latest in his Greg and Jill McKenzie mystery series. His characters are familiar, real and charming (even to those who have not read his previous books) and the plot developments keep the story moving at a fast pace.You will thoroughly enjoy reading this book- and what else could you ask?

Greg McKenzie, retired Lieutenant Colonel where he was an agent with the OSI [Office of Special Investigations], is contacted by a former colleague from the Air Force and asked to investigate a matter for his girlfriend, one Kelli Kane. Greg and his wife, Jill, live in Nashville, TN, where they opened a p.i. agency about seventh months ago. Kelli herself has a background that includes working undercover for some Federal Agency, whether CIA or otherwise is unclear. It seems that her great-great-grandfather had been accused of embezzlement when a large sum of money went missing from the company for which he worked as assistant treasurer, Marathon Motor Works, ultimately resulting in its declaring bankruptcy. Her grandfather, now 84 and in a nursing home, has been contacted by the job foreman for a company renovating the building which had housed that company ninety years ago, telling him that some papers had been found, hidden in a wall, attached to which was a handwritten note indicating that the papers were to be turned over to the District Attorney's office. The job foreman, a man named Bradley, was to have brought the papers to Kelli's grandfather, but never kept his appointment. Greg and his wife are asked to find Bradley and the papers which they believe will exonerate her relative and clear the family name.

It is not long before Bradley's body is found, and his house is discovered to have been ransacked, as is Kelli's grandfather's house. And of course the papers that might solve the mystery of the missing money are nowhere to be found. Complicating matters is the fact that as the investigation progresses it appears that the old man had a propensity for alienating a wide range of people, as had Bradley himself, and his being targeted may have had nothing to do with the Marathon investigation, but simply a matter of vandalism. But then another body is discovered.

Marathon Motor Works was a real company, and in fact it produced the only car completely built in the South. Nashville and its environs are lovingly described by the author, who has given us a very good mystery, well-written and suspenseful, and one I enjoyed a great deal.