The Sacred Disc [Paperback]

Charles West (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Only in California would a New Age cult's holy teachings be contained on a 5 1/4" floppy disk--hence the title of West's droll, fast-paced debut novel set in the San Joaquin Valley. Bob Fisher, a Vietnam vet with a Ph.D. in history and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, falls into the detecting business when he inherits an agency with an efficient secretary, and he soon earns a reputation for trouble after an on-air fistfight with an unscrupulous televangelist. Now he accepts his first important sleuthing gig: finding the missing floppy for Yogi Ben Barr and Baba Der Ursus, the mysteriously wealthy leaders of the Eternal Truth Temple. The trail leads to Christy Baker, Tom Hammerhill and Angie Fernandes, all lapsed members with a grudge and a mission. After Tom is murdered, Christy turns to Fisher for help. Later, the police pull Angie's body out of a reservoir. In the process of discovering that many of the temple members are reformed drug addicts, Fisher gets to sleep with Christy and her mother. He also takes a beating from three thugs who wear cowboy boots, speak Spanish and are in the employ of a noted dealer. A lame conclusion and a detective in the familiar retro, smart-alecky, morally flexible mold will gain the author few marks for originality, but an assured and easy style should win him converts. 4-city author tour. (Mar.)

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Someone has stolen the original text--on computer disc--of the Eternal Truth Temple's beliefs, so the California cult's co-founders hire a private detective to find it. The inexperienced Bob Fisher sets off eagerly enough, but soon finds himself involved in the suspicious murder of a man on the Temple's short but detailed list of possible provocateurs. Fisher, a Diet Pepsi addict with a doctorate in history who inherited the agency, and the resourceful single mother who knows how to run it make refreshing protagonists. Multiple murders, drugs, and deception round out the plot. A strong focus, laconic prose, and wry outlook make this first novel, winner of the first annual Salvo Press Mystery Novel Award, a recommended choice for most collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Salvo Press; 1st edition (April 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966452046
• ISBN-13: 978-0966452044
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,329,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-time novelist succeeds in genre-bending mystery debut, June 19, 2000

By 

Warren Beath (Bakersfield, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sacred Disc (Paperback)

Charles West scores with this first mystery novel, the tale of an "accidental" detective named Bob Fisher who inherits a collections and investigations agency in a barely-disguised Fresno, California. The Fruit Basket of the World becomes for West the Fruitcake Basket of the Universe. It's a peculiar California demimonde the author depicts, where agrarain tradition is decomposing into urbanization and corporate corruption. It's in this environment that Fisher is hired by the founders of the Eternal Truth Temple to recover the Sacred Disc-- a floppy, in this case-- which contains the tenets of their faith. But any church with high priests who call themselves Yogi Ben Barr and Baba Der Ursus is its own worst enemy. Fisher, in fact, seems born beneath whatever star determines that his karma bring him into constant conflict with phony belief systems. His dissillusioned past is blighted by his televised attempted murder of a televangelist who was scamming veterans, and his relaxed exploration of his own elastic morals drives the development of this novel. West enjoys playing with the mystery conventions, and the characters in the book seem to recognize their parts in the formula, and the chafing against type is one of the unique elements of West's voice. The writing is lean and effective, the story-telling controlled and on target. Don't walk, run to get this book. Read it. Then impress your friends with the new talent you've discovered.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sacred Disc, March 29, 2000

By 

Judy Swauger (Roseville, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sacred Disc (Paperback)

This is the story of a laid back private investigator, Bob Fisher who has inherited a collection agency and takes his first case to find the Sacred Disc for the Eternal Truth Temple. Suspects include former temple recruits. As he begins the investigation, bodies start to appear. The ending is great. This is the author's first novel and I can only hope this is the start of a series.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sacred Disc Is Sure to Please, June 16, 2000

By 

Warren Beath (Bakersfield, California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sacred Disc (Paperback)

This is a very entertaining and rewarding book. Charles West has a fine talent, and he has created a wonderful character in Bob Fisher, who vividly floats above the conventions of the mystery genre. Fisher is an "accidental" detective, inheritor of an investigations and collections agency, whose life is in something of recoil from his televised attempted murder of a larcenous televangelist. The name "Fisher" is resonant of both Christian and mythic symbolism, and it seems Bob's destiny to confront the phony and insincere in his own struggle for a belief system-- specifically in the book, when he is hired by Eternal Truth Temple to recover a Sacred Disc (floppy) believed to have been hijacked by a committee of disillusioned former acolytes. Bob himself is in some spiritual flounder as a result of his disillusions and disappointments, and attempts to find some comfort in the conventions of the classic crime fiction detectives. It's an overcoat which is mostly as ill-fitting as his former incarnations. The power of this book, and the development, is in the unfoldment of the main character. All takes place within that hotbed of cornpone/cult religiosity, California's Central Valley. It ain't LA, and it ain't New York. In fact, it ain't sure what it is, struggling with the transistion from agrarian fruit basket to urbanized fruitcake basket. What it is is Central California, a place West knows well, and finds a wonderfully believable setting for a delirious cult whose chief potentates are Yogi Ben Barr, and Baba Der Ursus. Charles West is a careful and controlled storyteller with a satisfying and sparse style. The pace is brisk, and West seems to be having a lot of fun with the conventions of a form he has mastered-- the mystery novel. If the characters are sometimes uncomfortable-- hilariously so-- with the familiar and subserviant roles which the genre assigns its players, West is very confident and easy with the assignment. Suspenseful and funny, poignant and cynical, The Sacred Disc is a highly successful first novel. It left me hoping I had not seen the last of Bob Fisher. Something tells me, I haven't.