Customer Reviews

The Skirt Man: Library Edition

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In the small town of Killdeer, New York, a town celebration is interrupted by the news that a local hermit, nicknamed the Skirt Man for the skirts he insists on wearing, has been found burned to death in his living room. While local television celebrity Creedmore Snowdon prefers to look at the death as a case of spontaneous combustion, state trooper Sebastian and his brother-in-law Billy, who is a New York fire marshal, regard it as a homicide. Told through the words of Sebastian's wife Annie, a local reporter and general busybody, their investigation and the details of the Killdeer inhabitants who knew the Skirt Man are exposed step by step until the truth emerges.

As a narrator, Annie projects the image of a passive, not-very-clever woman. Her interests are rooted in gossip that does not extend beyond her small sphere. In short, Annie is a boring, even annoying, narrator for readers who like their sleuths to have some spunk. She picks up pieces of information mostly through the interrogation techniques of her manicurist, Pam, and through the antics and observations of the slapstick duo of interracial stepbrothers Mo and Sonny Dillenbeck. The result is a frothy, thin mystery that carries the reader's interest mostly because it demands so little from the imagination. The final revelation of the killer is ill-prepared for, although the much fuller picture gained of the Skirt Man is partially worth the wait. If only Reuben had dug deeper into her issues, The Skirt Man could have been a satisfying cozy mystery. Reuben's ideas are interesting, even if she does not fully develop them.

I have found all of Shelly Reuben's books to be very entertaining, educational and intriquing. This book is well worth reading.

A worthy successor to Tabula Rasa, Weeping, Spent Matches and her other works, The Skirt Man should expand Shelly Reuben's cult of arson murder mystery afficianados to the general reader. It brings back local newspaper reporter Annie Bly, a younger Miss Marple, her state trooper husband Sebastian, and arson investigator Billy Nightingale and the Upstate New York town of Killdeer and its inhabitants. Ms. Reuben, a private investigatior, not only knows her subject, she's a crackajack writer who brilliantly captures what it's like today to live in less than idyllic James Fenimore Cooper country. Both the good guys and the bad guys come alive and the novel keeps you on the edge of your seat until the surprise ( you'll never guess it) and satisfying ending. You not only find out who murdered the Skirt Man, a local farmer, but why he wore a skirt as he plowed his fields on his tractor.

Annie Bly is someone I would like to be best friends with. She is smart, she is so witty and very, very sharp. I was a little surpised to see one of the reviews lamenting the author's use of women as weak characters. I certainly did not get that feeling while reading this completely entertaining book.

The elements of fire in this story are so interesting, but made even more so by being inter-mingled in the ever-increasing mystery of who killed The Skirt Man. I feel like I learned a lot, but I also felt completely entertained and satisfied with a surprising outcome.

A fire, a suspicious death, a township of eccentrics and a changing real estate market set the stage for a blend of murder, conflicting worldviews, simple people and mixed motives in Reuben's The Shirt Man, a collage of personalities and agendas representative of the economic anomalies that infect the current urban landscape. In the village of Killdeer, New York, most folks not only remember the old days, they cling to them. The Skirt Man, Morgan Mason, is one of the old-timers, although no one can say why he wears a skirt to drive his tractor and perform his chores around the farm. He has for years.

The eccentric man accepted as integral to the local color of the village, it is a shock when Mason's house burns down, his charred remains found inside. The cause of death appears accidental, but after a short investigation, it's clear that this is murder. Enter Annie and Sebastian Bly, local residents, and Annie's brother Billy Nightingale, supervising fire marshal of the New York City Fire department, visiting for his niece's ballet performance. The three have worked together before (Tabula Rosa), their skill perfect for solving such a crime. Sebastian is a state police officer and Annie is a small-time newspaper reporter, a willing coconspirator to her husband and brother's adventures in crime solving.

With characteristic self-deprecating humor, Annie relates anecdotes about her job, her husband and her family, the characters that people the novel, some lovable, others unlikable, but all described from Annie's quirky perspective, the village of Killdeer and Hobby Hills Horse Farm, currently a weekend concert arena, plagued by petty crime and illegal drugs. Reuben approaches the murder in the patchwork style of the village residents, each with bits of important information that make no sense until put together, piece by piece, incriminating evidence that invites more than murder; there is the sale of illegal drugs, endangering of minors, tax fraud and corporate scams. Besides the mysterious death of an old man, a way of life is threatened, and it is Reuben's colorful characters that put a face on an urban tragedy. Luan Gaines/ 2006.