Customer Reviews

Poverty Bay (Thomas Black Mysteries)

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

 

 

Emerson's books are always a fun, quick read. This is not one of his best but I enjoyed it as usual. I must do a great deal of technical reading and writing so spending an evening with Thomas Black is a particular treat---I think he's someone I'd like to know in real life. Emerson writes well (if a bit heavy on simile) and his plots are well crafted; he makes them more than just who-dun-its by weaving in thought provoking social problems such as homelessness, aides, and drug use. His settings are also great---I love following his travels around Seattle and neighboring towns since I grew up in that area and know right where he is most of the time. I'm just waiting to find my hometown, Marysville, in one of his books.

This is the second novel in the Thomas Black series by Earl Emerson. This book has a strong plot and Emerson describes the atmosphere of Seattle to perfection in this book. Lance Tyner is the heir to his grandfather's fortune of $15 million. When Tyner diappears, Black investigates, and goes to some dreary places where the dregs of humanity struggle to stay alive. This is a strong addition to the series which began with "The Rainy City." Black and his friend, Kathy Birchfield, are likeable and believeable characters.

"Poverty Bay" is the second installment in Thomas Black series. Thirty-something private investigator Black finds himself dealing with a nasty, almost evil family. His friend Kathy, now a lawyer and no longer his basement tenant, asks him to locate a missing client, Lance Tyner, who has inherited 15 million dollars from his grandfather. He is a man of innocence with a heart for the poor and homeless, and he has plans to use the money for good. His family members, angry that they did not share in the inheritance, want to find him to force him to change his mind about sharing. This plot plays out in several surprising ways that the reader doesn't see coming.

There isn't a lot to enjoy in this book as far as the characters go. The family is awful. Lance's father, brother, and sister are ugly in their talk about Lance, they are overtly racist in dealing with his black girlfriend, and they are self-indulgent in every way. Lance was at one time a street person in Seattle, and so in trying to find him Thomas visits the city's homeless camps, which is not easy to read about. He also has to deal with a horrible "trailer trash" type woman with a number of neglected children. Emerson does not sugarcoat these sections.

Emerson takes the readers around Seattle again, and this time he also has Thomas going to the Olympic peninsula, which makes for some new and interesting locales. I think Emerson's writing improved in this book. I was not so aware of what he was trying to do as an author.

Poverty Bay is a solid enough mystery wrapped in a depressing ambiance. In this second book in the series, Thomas Black is hired to locate a missing man, Lance. Lance failed to meet his black girlfriend at the marriage license bureau. It turns out that Lance is the sole heir to a 15 million dollar fortune who has lived as a street person for the last few years. Hence, Thomas follows a trail through both the homeless life of Seattle and the black sub-culture as he seeks Lance.

This was a pretty good read. The clues, while sometimes pretty improbable, turn up regularly. Still, there's no glamour in this tale or humor.

Very tiresome reading of this one since it got so many holes from the very beginning without any appropriate logic and explanation. Trying very hard to create a cool p.i. sometimes might only left bad taste for a thinking reader. Gulping up blindly without thinking while reading a detective story would not good for your health, at least not for your brain.

Thi book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time

Emerson writes hardboiled well plotted mysteries and this is one. Some of his descriptions are memorable--"Tyner wore an undistinguished gray suit with a tie that lay on his bony chest like a lizard mashed under a truck tire....He was staring at the floor wondering what other foul dishes fate had yet to ladle up." One of my criticisms of his prior novel is that the characters were abnormal. In this book he has two "normal" people-they appear as neighbors on about a page and a half. One of the principal plot elements is a description of the down and out. This was not of much interest to me and Emerson did not include any "tricks" bums might use to make it more interesting. However, I keep reading and buying the books so Emerson is doing more right than wrong.