Customer Reviews

Teardrops Are Red

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Zed Taggert-Franklin (Taggert) thought the trip to Nebraska for his fathers funeral would close the door on a chapter of his life. So, it was just a little disconcerting when he began experiencing some guilt because their relationship had never been a close one. It was really his fathers fault. Ed Franklin had become an alcoholic and womanizer, which prompted Taggerts mother to divorce him. Since Taggert had became an adult, there had been almost no communication between them. It was only in the past couple of years that they had even been able to have short telephone conversations. Yes, there would be a little guilt to work through, but all in all, the trip to Nebraska should be no big deal.

Life is never simple, and burying his father served to place him in the middle of quite a mystery. It started when Selma Slater demanded to see him. She wanted to hire him to complete the job his father had started. You see, Ed Franklin was a retired LA police detective, with an obsession for golf. When Taggert was 3 years old, his father started him in golf lessons. He would have made Taggert into a young professional golfer if Taggert had cooperated. So, it seems only natural that when Ed retired and moved to Nebraska, he would become a Private Investigator, as well as, open a golf range. Taggert learns that his high school sweetheart, Ann, had been murdered and now Selma, her aunt, felt she was being stalked. Before his heart attack, Ed had been trying to determine who was after her and now she wanted Taggert to complete the investigation. Taggert had already decided to find Anns killer and since Selma thought the same person who killed Ann was also stalking her, he figured he might as well get paid to do what he planned to do anyway.

Besides the usual suspects, he finds a town full of ex-convicts who are being controlled by Al Voldecker. Al is a psychiatrist and claims to have rehabilitated the violent criminals by hypnosis. He is also Selmas son-in-law. In addition, there is H. J. Smith, an official for the Federal Board of Parole, and Joe Last, multimillionaire, all of whom hate each other. Overall, you have enough suspects to last a lifetime.

When Selma is murdered, and her daughters, as well as her granddaughters are threatened, it appears someone wants the whole family dead. But who?

Teardrops are Red keeps you on your toes trying to help Taggert solve the case. The author brings you into the story, has you mentally sifting for clues and analyzing suspects as you try to find something that can break the case. It also explores the father/son relationship, as well as the guilt that can exist after a father dies and reconciliation is no longer possible. This is Mr. Schepmans first published novel. Hopefully, there will be more to come.

I really did like the book for the most part, but some things were a little disappointing. I purchased the book mostly because I live in Nebraska and love mysteries. I wanted to see how Nebraska was portrayed and I was impressed. I think the small town atmosphere and the power of a name and some money in a small town were adequately described.

I think the book would have been better if an alternate CLEAR suspect would have been identified. There seemed to be so many suspects, it was too hard to narrow the "who done it" in my own mind to a couple of people.

I was somewhat disappointed in the ending. First of all, I thought it ended too fast. I loved the main character (Taggert) and was disappointed that he wasn't even awake for the climax. All goes dark and he wakes up in a hospital with everything neatly wrapped up. You know he was the hero because of the fan mail he received, but if he could have been there for the final struggle and been awake to tell the moron of a sherrif what exactly happened, it would have been much better. Basically, he won, but the ending felt like he won out of luck, not out of any type of skill or heroism.

The only other thing I didn't like was I would have liked the book to clarify without a doubt that Dr. Al and what he was doing was good. Although nothing having to do with the doctor ended up having to do with the murders at all, the book cast so much doubt on the works of the psychiatrist that it would have either been more fun to have him be a part of the whole mess or to have him rise above it all with a world cure for violence (thus a happy ending pointing toward the ever evasive "world peace" quest).

Very good-- Being a Nebraskan myself ,was one of the reasons for purchasing it. Love mysteries,Spillane,Hammer,Wolfe etc and now this one.. Hope to see a series coming... Thanks and am glad I bought it...Sharon

I recently purchased "Teardrops Are Red" by John Schepman to read in my spare time. Needless to say, after reading the first chapter, I couldn't put it down. Schepman has outdone himself in this unique and refreshing style thriller. If you like mysteries, this one will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Zed Taggert-Franklin and his little Cavalier have found their way into my psyche.

I had a great time from beginning to end. It was great fun because you could not take it too seriously, but at the same time you were not quite sure. Enough threads of story were woven throughout that you had to pay attention, and the suspense never let up. It reminded me of how much I loved the Mickey Spillane books. The characters were almost caricatures, but they rang true nonetheless.