Library Journal's Best Mystery Fiction 2004 --The Library Journal
"Sniff, sniff"
Do I smell the arrival of a new sub- genre in the Mystery genre- already saturated with sci- fiction, legal thrillers, horror fiction, political thrillers and other sub- genres?
I ask this because, in the last couple of months I read two books that were totally unique to the mystery genre and proved wonderful, wonderful reading. The first one that I read a couple of months back was Mark Haddon?s THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME and the other book is the one under review- WALDO CHICKEN WAKES THE DEAD. Subtle humor, sublime hardcore (literary) thoughts and murder whodunits are finely and tastefully blended to give pristine reading pleasure in these two books.
A synopsis of the plot of Waldo Chicken... will not reveal anything unique- but the total reading of the book will delight and enthrall the lover of good fiction. The narration, intermingled with comic column strips proves interesting reading. Connie O? Toole, a cartoonist by vocation is an amateur sleuth by passion. His sidekicks, who help Connie to solve mysteries, help in sleuthing etc. - are Waldo- a walrus and Chicken, a hen who has made the head of Waldo his permanent resting place. Why a walrus and a chicken for sidekicks, you might wonder? - The reason is fairly simple; Waldo and Chicken are a comic strip creation of Connie. Waldo is pompous, fat and has all attributes of a comic walrus. The Chicken is a squeak- nervous, complaining, all-in-all a nerd. And Connie enjoys a good rapport with the duo- and has hour long conversations with them- And yes Connie is normal. And he has a wonderful wife Evelyn.
But when Sammy Higgenbothum, the 9 year old neighbor request Connie to find out his missing cat, Mister Woo, Evelyn, Waldo, Chicken and Connie join hands and embark upon an investigation. They find Mister Woo, but also come across a skull, a ruby earring and a statue of Waldo!!!!! What follows is an exciting surrealistic mystery culminating in a well?.never imagined finish.
Enjoyed the work very much. Radical, really, really radical. --New Mystery Reader
"Waldo Chicken Wakes the Dead" features both the most unusual title I've seen in awhile, but also a most unusual amateur detectives. Constable "Connie" O'Toole is a newspaper cartoonist who not only draws Waldo Chicken—a Mutt-and-Jeff duo of a sarcastic walrus and the flighty fowl who roosts on his head—he also talks to them. They talk back as well, mostly about the comic strip, but also about the small mysteries O'Toole is asked to look into. It was while searching for Mr. Woo, the neighborhood's reigning cat, that O'Toole and his long-suffering wife discover a skull, the marble statue of Waldo Chicken that had been stolen at a seance a year ago and an earring that belonged to Becky Thatcher, the hot Mississippi Amazon who came into town searching for a man who loved and abandoned a decade ago, and who may have died several times since.
And then it gets really weird.
Published through a small press in Idaho, "Waldo Chicken" is a funhouse ride through a world that combines Southern eccentrics with David Lynch-style weirdness, such as a bull named Elvis who's worth millions, a black detective with a fixation on "Amos and Andy" and a seance in which the spirit speaks through a blow-up doll. Alan Goldsmith, a retired ad exec living in Atlanta, keeps this carousel of crazies chugging along merrily, adding weirder complications that raise the stakes for O'Toole. It's only at the end that "Waldo Chicken" runs out of steam, with an extended epilogue that collapses the plot under the weight of its complications, but until then, it's great fun. --Bill Peschel Reviews
Cartoonist Connie O'Toole babbles incessantly with the "stars" of his weekly cartoon, an opinionated walrus with a chicken permanently nested on his head (weird). Nonetheless, a neighborhood child asks for their help in finding his lost cat. Connie and his long-suffering wife locate the feline in a nearby construction lot, along with a human skull, a ruby earring, and a Waldo Chicken statue, stolen the year before (weirder!). All kinds of colorful plot peregrinations ensue, accompanied by cartoony characters and witty dialog. Essential. -- The Library Journal --Multiple Reviews
