Customer Reviews

The Right Jack

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

 

 

I've read each of Maron's books at least three times; the first time to read the story, and afterwards for the pleasure of visiting her characters AND rereading the story. Her scenario does not pall because you now know the ending. I've been reading mysteries for 50 years, starting with Nancy Drew, and I didn't think any writer could come up with a denouement that I hadn't figured out. Maron has surprised me every single time. And her protagonist, Lt. Sigrid Harald, plus all the secondary characters (like Sigrid's sidekick, Detective Tilden--who figures largely in "The Right Jack") are so 3-dimensional that they become valued friends. Maron's other strengths include writing well (and grammatically) so that you are not irritated in that vein. She is only a step behind Thomas Perry and Nicholas Blake in sheer writing talent, but ahead of everyone in writing a mystery with a guaranteed surprise ending that is fair and legitimate. As you gasp at the solution, you realize there are many clues sprinkled throughout the preceding pages. I found her talent for writing mysteries superior to Christie, Sayers, Rendall, James, and even Tey! I also recommend her Judge Deborah Knott mysteries; they are equally superb.

Margaret Maron's mysteries tend to be very predictable. Generally, it doesn't take too long to figure out whodunit. This is a fun book because of the cribbage element. For cribbage players, this is a must read. This isn't the best in the series, she hasn't yet mastered suspensefullness, but it's still a good read.

As a preface to any review of the Sigrid Harald series, I think it only right to include the author's note from the final book "Fugitive Colors".

"Lieutenant Sigrid Harald, NYPD first appeared in... "One Coffee With" in 1981. "Fugitive Colors" is her eighth adventure, with each book set in what was - and is - the current "now."

"One Coffee With" began on a blue-sky sunny April day. Spring gave way to summer, then autumn in New York, followed by Christmas and one of the worst Februarys in the city's memory (in Sigrid's memory, too, unfortunately)

For the author, fourteen years have passed. For Sigrid Harald herself, no matter how much internal evidence alert readers may cite to the contrary, it has been only one short tumultuous year.

And now it is spring again. . . "

As mentioned, this jewel of a character study spans the course of eight full length novels plus two short stories, one, "Lieutenant Harald And the `Treasure Island' Treasure" was originally published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and the other, "Lieutenant Harald And The Impossible Gun" first appeared in Marilyn Wallace's fourth anthology. Both can be found in Margaret Maron's short story anthology "Shoveling Smoke".

As other reviewers have noted, these stories must be read in the correct order to fully understand the amazing transformation Sigrid goes through in the span of a short year, both internally and externally. And yet, all of the books can stand alone as well-plotted mysteries. This is the mark of Maron's true genius.

"The Right Jack" (1987) - In mid-October, NYPD Homicide Detective Sigrid Harald's partner, Detective Tildon, should have been safe at his cribbage tournament in a posh Manhattan hotel but a bomb blast leaves him in intensive care. Sigrid is sent to investigate who the real target was - the college professor with a radical past, the millionaire banker, or the lovely naval intelligence officer? Only by identifying who the real target was - the "right jack" - will Lieutenant Herald be able to solve this case.

This case also marks the complete integration of Sigrid's personal and professional lives. Not only is Sigrid's partner severely injured, but Nauman is close friends with one of murdered competitors and his grieving widow. Another competitor knows both Sigrid and Nauman socially. Will these close personal ties help or hinder Sigrid solve the case? Sigrid finds out that her boss had been her father's partner at the time of his death in the line of duty. And Sigrid's mother finds out about Nauman!

This is one of the most complex plots and one of my personal favorites. It breaks with tradition in that the victim is totally sympathetic. Its complexity comes from trying to identify who the actual intended victim really was.

Yes, the author does try and give you the clues- and red herrings- so you can figure it out yourself. I didn't- quite, but I was able to see the red herrings.

Anyway, it's a good read, with fascinating and detailed characterization, full of small details about what the characters are wearing, their appearance, personal life, with a bit of flirting and a tad of romance.

This particular story is also nice if you are or know a cribbage fan.

True, it's not up to the Gold Standard set by such masters as Rex Stout, etc. But few are.

I enjoyed it, and am going to pick up more next trip to the used book store. Try it yourself.

I just wanted to add that I also thought this was a really good mystery. I enjoyed it very much.

I love Margaret Maron's style, her prose. It's a game for me to try to solve the mystery before the sleuth. In this book, which gets its title from the cribbage tournament during which the murders occur, I figured out who did it from the first description of a person of interest. The author had gone out of her way to make this entity as different from the murderer as possible. This happened a quarter to a third of the way into the book. However, this did not spoil my enjoyment of the book as I continued to watch Sigird unravel the plot, each successive clue further validating my theory.

Maron is always a great read!

Although the story is excellent, I would not recommend the Severn House edition to a collector. The printing quality is poor. The print is too dark and a bit blurry. In some cases the characters bleed together. In addition the ink does not cover each typed character, a factor which contributes to the blurring.