Customer Reviews

Murder in Metropolis

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sheriff Joe Dalton has a problem, namely finding the murderer of his best friend Jack Hatfield, whose decapitated body was hung neatly over the landmark Superman statue in front of the courthouse.
Things like this don't happen in his town and certainly not to one of his old schoolmates. This case was personal and if it took him his entire life he would find out who did it; the quest beings.

I have read a lot of murder mysteries, some have been grisly, some have kept me sitting on the edge of my seat, some have bored me to tears, but this one was different.
The author weaves the storyline around in a way that you very quickly feel you are a member of Sheriff Dalton's town. He does this by bringing in personal aspects of different town members lives, their hopes, dreams, fears and shortcomings. They no longer are just story characters in your minds eye, but through the author's words they are alive. The murder victim Jack, his sister and brother, the Mayor and even Dalton's wife become your neighbors and friends and you find yourself just as determined as the Sheriff is to find the culprit of this crime.
The only problem is that it is your very friends and neighbors who become the prime suspects as two more bodies turn up, a newborn baby and Big Ed, the town drunk and possible witness, who may have been able to shed some light on the crime.
How does the baby figure in all of this? You have to know.

Murder In Metropolis is not a fast paced read, but one that draws you into the lives of the suspects, allowing you to search them for motives and making you part of the crime investigation. I enjoyed that, it was a lot of fun trying to figure out, "Who done it!" The motives for the murders and the ending I promise will surprise you. Very well done. Who would have ever thought! A delightful reading experience.

Final analysis: A well thought out mystery drawing the reader into the very lives of the townspeople, the suspects and the victims themselves. Written in a way that allows you to participate in the investigation, but let me warn you, no matter how much you think you have it all figured out, the ending to this one will surprise you. Excellent read, highly recommended.

Shirley Johnson
Senior Reviewer
MidWest Book Review

Lonnie Cruse drew me in Murder in Metropolis from the first with a corpse in a bizarre setting - hanging on the Superman statue. The murder of one of Sheriff Dalton's best friends is followed shortly by the discovery of a murdered newborn and the town drunk. The Sheriff leads the investigation in spite of concerns back home and a deputy whose personal life interferes with the investigation. The pace is brisk and the characters vivid. Lonnie Cruse treats personal and professional loyalty issues, marital discord and health fears with a sensitivity that had me caring and hoping for the characters. She maintained a wonderful balance between the investigation and the characters' lives with each complimenting the other. The ending was surprising and satisfying, but came too soon - I wanted to keep reading. If you want a puzzler with characters not created from a pattern - read this book!

Lonnie Cruse looked at the Superman statue and thought, "What a good place to put a body." That's how a mystery writer's mind works.

MURDER IN METROPOLIS is the first in a series featuring Sheriff Joe Dalton, a likeable guy and good country sheriff. Cruse knows the rhythms of small-town life, and her characters ring true. In this traditional mystery we get to know the victim through comments and action of friends and family after his death.

The victim is a popular businessman and the sheriff's longtime friend. Was there a witness to the murder? Maybe, if you count Big Ed, the town drunk, who was sleeping (or not) in a nearby doorway. How about the traveling salesman who may have been the last person to see the victim alive? Too bad the statue can't talk.

As the investigation proceeds, an old crime surfaces and carefully hidden secrets are brought to light. In a small town nothing is ever quite what it seems. There's a bit of a twist at the end. Cruse drops a clue early on, but I only realized it after the fact. No matter. I like surprises.

Sheriff Joe Dalton thinks he's simply going to roust the town drunk one morning, but instead he finds a murder victim at the site of the Superman statue in the (real) town of Metropolis, Illinois. He has to get closer to see what is draped over the arm.

Why would anyone want to murder Jack Hatfield, an old friend of Joe's, and a man everyone in town liked? By the way the body and head were positioned, it seems someone has a real hatred for the victim.

Many interesting suspects keep the sheriff hopping and the reader in suspense. Ms. Cruse handles the police procedural and the cozy part of this novel with ease and skill.

Despite the rather grisly opening, this really could be called a cozy police procedural and should please readers of both. Violence takes place off-scene, but nonetheless the reader gets the full impact of the horror of violent death. Ms. Cruse is a skillful writer who's characters come alive on the pages.

A very enjoyable read!

Good Stuff:

This was a well-thought out mystery with no holes in the plot that I could discern. It was an interesting story.

The writing was excellent. Good, concise prose.

Except for a small formatting issue of extra lines and lines breaking off to the next line at odd moments, there were no editing errors that are sometimes rampant in self-published works.

The Bad Stuff:

The characters weren't 'deep' enough. They all seemed to be described very superficially. While I cared about the story, the characters were just two dimensional.

However, I know this is the first in a series, so perhaps the author plans on fleshing out the characters more in subsequent books.

Overall:

A fun mystery with a dash of police procedural.

I would like to thank Ms.Cruse for a well written suspense piece. Reading the book sent me into a spin about the 'Who Done It' kind of thing. Just when you think you have the killer figured out and nailed....the plot thickens. I also like the way she has created characters that face the very things that many people face in life. This lends solidity to the book... a level in which people can relate which allows for a more fluid flow of feelings and emotions. Hoping to read more from Ms.Cruse in the near future.

This book has you turning pages from the get-go! I can't wait for her next book to come out! Five stars for our home town author!!!!

Good mystery from a first-time novelist. I thought I had the ending pegged, but she threw a good twist in the plot. A good story!

I'm real careful about giving out 5-stars, and this doesn't QUITE make the cut, but I'd say that it's pretty darn close! I was delighted reading this book. It was a nice, old-fashioned mystery - easy to read, standard characters, basic plot - not the 'overdone' stuff that's so prevalent today. I was happily reading away and thinking how refreshing it was to have a simple 'light reading' mystery that was also enjoyable and not too cliched. Then I got to the last couple of chapters... WOW! Just blew me away. I did NOT see that coming... it was a wonderful, sneaky plot twist that exposed the fact that even charming small towns (whether they're called 'Metropolis' or not...) have dark underbellies and secrets that people will kill to keep. And when I say the plot twist was 'sneaky', I mean it in the best possible way - out of left field, but still 100% believable and in line with both the story and reality. I'd definitely recommend this book to just about anyone - no sex, no graphic violence, no bad language, a believeable plot, likeable characters (in all senses of the word!)and a great twist at the end!

My only gripe is that the Kindle edition (which is what I read) had pretty wonky formatting. Chapter headings were run together and there were a few places where hard returns were used at the ends of lines, making a few paragraphs look like they were printed as poetry. Those issues were a little distracting, but not to the point of detracting from the book.

I thought this was a pretty well-crafted mystery. Who can resist a mystery in Metropolis? I didn't know "who done it" until the end, something that's important to me when I read a murder mystery. I hate it when after the first chapter I know who the murder is. I look forward to reading more Metropolis Mystery books or rather e-books.