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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lawyer uncovers a trail of death, July 26, 2004
This review is from: A Small Case of Murder (Paperback)
After the death of his wife, lawyer Joshua Thornton brings his children back to his native West Virginia where he intends to set up a law practice. But from the moment he steps into his new office, he begins discovering clues to a wave of crime that has held the town in fear for decades--a crime wave associated with murder, the drug trade, and intimately connected to the largest church in town. But a lawyer has to eat--and the criminals control the police and prosecutors in their county. What can one man do against the power and evil he faces?
As Thornton starts digging into the case, he discovers that a string of strange deaths have been associated with the Rev. Rawlings. The minister's wife, his daughter-in-law, Thornton's own parents and their friend Lulu, and a strange and unidentified man discovered by teenagers on prom night are all dead. If anything, death strikes more quickly once Thornton arrives with Rawlings' own granddaughter the next victim--pierced through the heart with a steel stake. Along with his recovering alcoholic cousin, Tad, Thornton will have to move quickly if he doesn't want to be the next victim--or put his children in danger.
Author Lauren Carr delivers an intriguing mystery--plenty of murder, a dark secret, criminals with powerful political connections, and a twist at the end. Carr's writing is strong and engaging. The story could have been stronger, however, if Thornton had done less talking and more action. The long interogation scenes seem like throwbacks to Perry Mason. Also, it could be just me, but I wish the characters had smiled and chuckled a bit less when they talked. After a while, it started to pull me out of the story.
There is a strong element of faith involved in the story. Thornton's quest is more than that of a lawyer seeing the truth, to a real degree, he is also fighting evil.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything a great mystery novel should be - and then some, July 31, 2004
This review is from: A Small Case of Murder (Paperback)
It takes a special kind of writer to really pull off a good mystery without pulling any punches, taking any shortcuts, or losing the reader's commitment all the way up to the final page. Lauren Carr is one of those special writers. A Small Case of Murder is like a good mystery on steroids; everything starts out simple, with a mysterious little murder committed decades ago, but the plot soon becomes increasingly complex and increasingly fascinating. This is not a simple mystery - not by a long shot. I don't know if I have ever read a mystery with as many twists and turns along the way: you've got a 50-year string of murders covering two sides of the globe, all kinds of personal secrets being held close by the innocent and guilty alike, rampant speculation and discoveries about blood ties and familial relations among a fairly large subset of people, and plenty of characters worthy of your suspicion as the story unfolds. I did have to stop at times, re-read a sudden revelation, and pause to work out how this new piece of evidence could possibly be and what it might mean, yet Carr never allows the complexity of the web she is weaving to leave the reader by the wayside, lost and confused. You do have to be an active participant in the drama, though, if you are going to keep yourself from tripping up over all the loose ends that slowly come together on the pathway to the truth.
After the death of his wife, Joshua Thornton has left the Navy (where he worked as an investigator and prosecutor) and returned home to West Virginia to raise his five children. Cleaning out the old house, he finds an unopened letter mailed to his parents on the very day they died in an accident; here Josh learns that his parents and another couple discovered a dead body on their prom night only to find it gone when they got the sheriff out to the site. This letter soon becomes an important piece of evidence in an investigation of mammoth proportions; the story of the dead body his parents found becomes much more than the "small case of murder" Josh's son initially proclaims it to be. The criminal activity all centers on a prominent local preacher and his family; this man of the cloth and his children are already known to be the local drug lords (although no one has been able to prove it yet), but the onus of drug peddling pales in comparison to the body count that soon begins to stack up. I won't say any more about the plot. I really couldn't begin to do justice to this complex story, nor would I want to take a single iota of enjoyment from future readers of this riveting mystery.
Carr handles all of her characters in a wonderfully subtle manner, forcing us to consider each one a possible suspect at some point - and there are plenty of loosely connected crimes to go around. Of course, the murders of several potential suspects tend to shorten the reader's list as one goes along. Still, I went into the concluding chapters with little idea of how everything would actually play out - although I certainly had my suspicions (and was actually right on the money in a couple of cases, I'm quite proud to say). Then, just when you think everything is out in the open, Carr drops another little bomb right on you. Stepping away from the story now, I can only marvel at the beauty of Carr's intricate plot - and I mean marvel of the jaw-dropping kind.
Have I mentioned how addictive this story is? You might need to set your clock before picking this novel up, as you really can almost immediately immerse yourself completely in these pages. Carr never takes her foot off the gas, either, as you are bombarded time and time again with new crimes, new evidence, new bombshells, new suspicions. What I am essentially saying here is this: A Small Case of Murder is one of the most absorbing, fascinating, complex, and impressive mystery novels I have ever read. If you love a good mystery, you will absolutely go nuts over Lauren Carr's A Small Case of Murder.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A premium blend mystery, July 17, 2004
This review is from: A Small Case of Murder (Paperback)
Whenever I think of mystery books, which isn't often, my mind conjures up images of Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, or Dashiell Hammett. More often I picture television mystery shows like "Murder She Wrote," "Poirot," or the wonderful "The Rockford Files." The mystery genre is, however, a genuine mystery to me. I just don't read that many books that fall under this rubric. I prefer horror novels, classics, or non-fiction books on history, politics, and philosophy. Oh, I've read a few of the better known mystery stuff, like most people have, but I tend to avoid them as a general rule. And then along comes someone like Lauren Carr, an author whose whodunit book "A Small Case of Murder" is such a winner on every level that I quickly wondered why I've been ignoring the genre for so long. Unfortunately, a quick search for other books from this author turned up nothing, but I imagine that problem will soon be rectified if word gets out about this complex, massively entertaining story. I hesitate to make grandiose pronouncements about a genre I know little about, but this lady may well go places soon if this book is any indication. Joshua Thornton, a recently retired lawyer who worked for the Navy, heads back to his childhood home in Chester, West Virginia to raise his five children after his wife passed away. The attorney seeks nothing but a restful atmosphere in which to recuperate from his personal tragedy, but events in this small town soon put an end to such naïve hopes. While cleaning out the attic of the Thornton place, one of the children discovers a letter hinting at a horrific discovery that took place on a nearby farm some thirty years ago. The letter writer, one Lulu Jefferson, recounted finding a corpse while out on a group date with Joshua's parents. Jefferson passed away under suspicious circumstances after writing the letter, as Joshua soon finds out, but the information revealed in the correspondence casts suspicion on one of the most powerful men in the area, the Reverend Orville Rawlings. As the story progresses, we discover that the Lulu Jefferson incident wasn't the only strange occurrence to attach itself to Rawlings and his odd clan. Soon, Thornton finds himself and his family caught up in a series of events that put the lawyer at odds with the aging minister. With only his cousin Dr. Tad MacMillan and his childhood friend Jan Martin as allies, Thornton begins to investigate the Rawlings family. A double homicide involving childhood flame Beth Davis and Vicki Rawlings, the wayward granddaughter of Reverend Orville, leads to Joshua's appointment as a special prosecutor in the case, which further enflames the deteriorating relationship between the Rawlings and Thornton. Throw in a pushy reporter named Tess Bauer, a sheriff who might be on the take, the deceased town doctor with a few telling secrets stashed away, an enigmatic informant by the name of Amber, and you have all the fixings for one astonishing plot twist after another. The Rawlings clan is rotten to the core, evil incarnate perhaps, and Joshua Thornton aims to take them down hard once the case sinks its teeth into him. Who killed Beth Davis? Who killed Vicki Rawlings? And why are more bodies turning up on what seems like a daily basis? It will take all of Thornton's mental abilities to solve this difficult case. Moreover, he quickly finds out the hard way that his family faces extreme danger as he pushes towards a conclusion. I'm not even going to risk spoiling the conclusion except to say there's nary a butler to be found anywhere along the way. "A Small Case of Murder" indeed! Bodies fall with frightening regularity in this extremely fast paced mystery thriller. Like all mystery stories, the book ends with a smashing denouement loaded with shocking revelations that has you thinking about the clues you missed along the way. What struck me full across the face, other than that this book is a cracking great mystery novel, are the "Peyton Place" qualities to the story. You've got a town, Chester, West Virginia, full of people living double lives. Dreadful debaucheries permeate the village, making me wonder exactly what it is in the water supply that would spawn such a cast of deviant characters. Even the heroes in the story boast an assortment of flaws. Tad MacMillan, for example, is a recovering alcoholic whose relationships with women in the area are shady even in the best of lights. Jan Martin, who runs the town drugstore, has an ugly temper and a recklessness that nearly results in criminal charges for not keeping track of her narcotics supply. Joshua Thornton, although he adores his kids, has a tough time reconciling his love for a case with becoming an effective single father. Carr seems to have a fondness for flawed personalities, a love that makes the book all the more realistic. "A Small Case of Murder" suffers a few small flaws. There are more typos in the book than I like to see, not as many as other books have, but enough to occasionally disrupt the flow of the narrative. Too, I thought the Thornton kids were a tad too perfect, too untroubled, to stand as archetypes of the typical American family. The denouement, despite its deeply satisfying wrap up of the mystery, seemed too pat. I kept wondering why the ones facing the blame just didn't get up and walk out. Despite these problems, the book is a smashing good read. I can't imagine giving this anything less than five stars. Lauren Carr, we can only hope, will write more books in the near future. If you like mystery yarns, you'll want to read this one soon.
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