Customer Reviews

The Surest Poison

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

 

 

Former police chief turned private investigator Sid Chance is hired by a businessman who's being sued for a chemical spill on a piece of property he owns. People in the surrounding area have been suffering from physical disorders and the water supply has been polluted. The businessman, however, claims the spill was left by a former company that occupied that parcel. With the help of his good friend, business owner and computer whiz Jaz LeMieux, Sid tries to find the owners of an auto parts rehab business that operated at that location for several years, but everyone seems to have disappeared, including former employees. And the few employees he does manage to unearth either die suspiciously or are too terrified to speak to him. As Sid doggedly pursues the case, he is threatened to back off, but when he doesn't comply, finds his life in mortal danger.

The pairing of Sid and Jaz makes for a dynamic investigative team. Both have their own unique talents and skills to bring to the table, and their chemistry as a team is appealing. Campbell delivers a tough-to-solve mystery, with plenty of red herrings and enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning pages.

Sid Chance is a former member of the Army Special Forces in Vietnam and a former National Parks ranger for eighteen years, as well as a small town police chief for ten, forced out of office when falsely charged with bribery. Never finding who had set out to destroy him, he has taken refuge for the past three years in a rustic cabin [read "no electricity or running water"] fifty miles east of Nashville. As the book opens he finds himself wondering "if he'd made the right decision in leaving. Going back to the type of work he had pursued for more than three decades left him exposed to the same flawed humanity that had chased him up here in the first place." But he is coaxed out of his hermit-like existence by his old friend Jasmine ("Jaz") LeMieux, who has recommended him to a corporate attorney and his client who is facing major financial disaster unless he can be cleared in a chemical pollution case. Sid is hired to find the company which had owned the property previously which, they are convinced, is the true culprit.

Jaz is quite a character, literally and figuratively. She "had the looks and the brains to be whatever she wanted, and she had the money and the contacts to pull it off." Her c.v. include having been a professional boxer, member of the Security Police with the Air Force, cop, board chairman of a major company, and during the course of the book is applying for a p.i. license, the better to enable her to work with Sid, finding she "couldn't resist the lure of the chase." A second story line evolves when Jaz' employees, a couple in their late seventies, plead with Jaz to help when their grandson and his nine-year-old son are threatened. When Sid assists in this effort, it means he must, with misgivings, return for the first time to the small town he had left in disgrace nearly four years earlier.

The author smoothly blends the two investigations being worked on by Sid and Jaz, which is accomplished with a little help from his friends, which include his poker-playing pals, the "Five Felons," comprised of a Metro police sergeant, a retired newspaper crime writer, a former Criminal Court Judge, and a local homicide detective, charmingly named "Bart Masterson." The reader is treated to a good old-fashioned detective story -- and that is intended as very high praise -- with swear words at a minimum, any violence not of the graphic variety, instead a more subtle but no less lethal kind, interspersed with ominous threats, some vague and some pointed.

The title comes from a line by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which "named such things as alcohol and strychnine but concluded: 'the surest poison is time.'" Mr. Campbell has written another terrific novel, one that is recommended.

This is the first of a new series by Chester Campbell, author of the well-loved Greg McKenzie mysteries. While I enjoy both series, after reading THE SUREST POISON, I realized I enjoy the harder-edged Sid a bit more. Greg and his wife, Jill, are like old friends, while Sid is a hero you can sink your teeth into.

The plot involves an old chemical spill that has very immediate consequences in a small Tennessee town. Although Campbell tackles some timely environmental issues in this book, the message is never preachy and never slows the story.

I am having a hard time thinking of how exactly I felt about this book. There was nothing necessarily wrong with it but I have to admit it did not engross me. I actually ended up putting it down and picking it up several times to read other books in between. One factor may have been I did not really find myself caring much about Sid Chance. I found myself thinking several times that for PI most of the deductions and findings seemed to come from the people around him. In fact, Jaz seemed to do most of the work on this case. That said I did like Jaz and it was nice to see a female place a prominent role in cracking this mystery. I think Campbell put together a nice supporting cast that it would be nice to see more of. Maybe Sid will grow on me in the next book.

Private Investigator Sid Chance prefers the solitary life at his rustic cabin located somewhere fifty miles east of Nashville. He'd spent three years there after his career as a small town police chief abruptly ended. Before that, he was a park ranger and that career abruptly ended. He has a history of not playing well with others and not being very good at the game of politics at work. Being a private investigator is a good fit and he has his friend Jasmine Le Mieux to thank for that.

Jasmine Le Mieux, ex cop and chairman of the board of Welcome Traveler Stores (a chain of truck stops) also referred his latest client, Arnie Bailey of the law firm Bailey, Riddle and Smith. It seems Arnie Bailey's client, Wade Harrington, owns and operates a small company just outside Ashland City that makes specialty shipping boxes. Residents in the area are dealing with the results of an environmental disaster. State investigators have found that trichloroethylene also known as TCE was dumped at his plant at some point in the past. The chemical was probably dumped onto the ground many times and has contaminated local well water and the public water supply. As the current landowner, Wade Harrington is being blamed and will have to pay claims and damages along with clean up costs. It could financially ruin him and his small company Harr Co.

Wade Harrington isn't responsible as TCE isn't anything they have ever used and isn't part of any manufacturing process for his company. But, as current owner of the property he is going to be held accountable unless the previous ownership can be found. The lawyer, Annie Bailey, wants the people actually responsible to be identified and tracked down so that if they are still alive, they can be held accountable. It won't be easy and it will mean dealing with some of the people responsible for Sid's previous problems.

Author Chester D. Campbell has crafted the first novel of no doubt a new series far different in style and tone from his very enjoyable Greg McKenzie mysteries. While this book and that series share the commonality of being cozies where history does play a role, this book features a much murkier central character that strongly prefers to go it alone. He certainly isn't Greg McKenzie in style or tone and not just because McKenzie is married and Sid isn't. There is a hard edge to Sid Chance that is always present and not just in situations that call for it.

Pacing is different as well as this novel takes far longer to get going in a meaningful way as compared to the Greg McKenzie novels. Fans that really enjoy that character may be slow to appreciate Sid as the book does not read anything like what one is used to from the pen of Chester D. Campbell. Which is not to say the book is not good. It most certainly is. However, the contrasts between the two different series are obvious and it does take time to accept the viewpoint of Sid Chance when one is very used to old friend Greg McKenzie.


Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2009

This novel proves that being a "reporter, freelance journalist, political speechwriter (and)advertising copywriter," does not make you a novelist.

The publisher is a small firm; two of its other authors provide glowing reviews on the back cover, and that tells you a lot. The Surest Poison is a set-up novel, the first of a planned series. Consequently, it is over-populated with a "cast" of characters who most likely will appear in future novels.

The story jerks about, bogged down with a lot of vehicle changes, over-identification of the roads driven, and way too many phone calls. The plot presents two story lines that end up being two parts of one case...Surprise! The reader sees this coming from the get-go and dragging it out just insults the reader's intelligence.

In addition, the writer seems very uncomfortable telling the story as the narrator; perhaps he would have achieved more flow by writing in the first-person.

There were a couple of very odd elements included, which reveal none too subtle prejudices on the part of Sid and/or the author himself. They stand out because their inclusion in the story have nothing to do with the plot and are totally unnecessary. Did the publisher demand "something" to include minorities? And if that was the reason for their inclusion, the author's attemps should have been sent back for rewrite or deleted altogether.

The subplot concerns a young black man and his family. They appear throughout the story and are presented as very, very nice, but none too bright, salt of the earth people, who also spend a lot of time bringing Sid and Jaz food and drink, with a lot of emphasis on what a great cook the eldest black woman is with a lot of references to her cakes and brownies. Really!

A couple of pointless but equally uncomfortable entries pop up out of nowhere. One, has Sid and his lady friend (probably future love interest) entering a business in search of clues. Sid offers to get Jaz a cappuccino: "He...placed the order with an effeminate young man who wore gold earrings and gold stud on one nostril. He knew the people you encountered in small towns these days could be a little different from those in big cities." After this bit of nonsense commentary, Sid delivers the cappuccino and the story continues. What is Sid's (or perhaps, Campbell's) problem?

Another offensive and poorly written insert concerns a sales clerk approached by Sid: "He was a sloe-eyed young man in khaki pants and a blue knit shirt, likely had (did he mean to say, "likely having had") at least one Korean parent." Sid then asks a couple of questions of this sales clerk. Again, what was the point of this? If he felt obliged to make the character unique in some way, why not just say he approached a young Korean sales clerk at the counter?

Sid just isn't very appealing as a character. Besides being rather inept as a detective, he comes across as a real jerk.
At one point in the story Sid invites people to meet at Jaz's home, then asks her if that Ok with her. She respnds, "It had better be. Looks like you've already made the arrangements." The next line: "He knew it ran counter to her stay in control principle, but as long as she was playing in his league, she'd have to play by his rules." Forget about his making assumptions and lack of good manners, "she'd have to play be HIS rules." And, of course, she makes no response and it's on with next bit of so called detective work. Sid is an ass! Jaz is presented as this strong ex-boxer/ex-cop; in which case she should have and would have put him in his place.

When one of the numerous bad guys tries to kill Sid later in the story, I really didn't care. But the killer was as inept as Sid, so he survived.

When I encounter a novel like this one, I realize it just doesn't take much to get published.