A Way with Widows (Carl Wilcox Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Harold Adams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994 | Series: Carl Wilcox Mysteries

Set in the Northern Plains during the Great Depression, this highly evocative drama is available for the first time in trade paperback.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a voice rich with the nuances of the post-Prohibition rural Midwest, Adams's ( A Perfectly Proper Murder ) Carl Wilcox relates his investigation of the death of Aaron Feist. Found on Darlene Singer's stairs "in a puddle of gore," Feist had been stabbed over 12 times. His wife Stella is the prime suspect: the butcher's knife used in the murder was hers, and she believed Feist was being overly attentive to the widow Singer. But Wilcox's sister Annabelle can't believe her friend Stella is guilty and convinces him (he was once a policeman in South Dakota) to look into the case. What he finds is a group of unlikely but possible suspects. They include Frenchy, the tenor-sax player who wanted to take over the dance band that Feist led, and Gene Fox, who co-owned and managed the clothing store founded by Feist's father and who hated paying half the profits to Feist, who did not work there. And there is Stella, who just might be guilty after all. But a second murder prompts Wilcox to search further for a motive. Rich in texture, spare in verbiage, Adams's latest mystery is a trim, satisfying delight.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Carl Wilcox, itinerant sign-painter and sometimes amateur sleuth, has been summoned to Red Ford, North Dakota, by his sister to clear her friend and neighbor of murder charges. Covering the town, Wilcox talks to suspects, fosters little nephew Kip, and beds a widow or two (for lust and information). Little else occurs, unfortunately, and once reached, the climax is disappointing. Adams (A Perfectly Proper Murder, LJ 9/1/93) evokes the simplistic 1930s easily enough but omits corroborating details. A marginal purchase.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 142 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; First Edition edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802731902
• ISBN-13: 978-0802731906
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,775,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Steinbeck wrote mysteries . . ., September 13, 2000

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Way With Widows (Paperback)

It's a good time for Harold Adams, whose novels about itinerent sign painter ex-cop Carl Wilcox had been languishing, garnering critical raves but little in the way of sales. Walker & Company, a publishing house becoming known for literate, sometimes off-beat mysteries, has released four books so far in trade paperback and published new ones in hardback. This is a series well worth investigating.

Wilcox reminds me of every boy's favorite uncle, the one who's a black sheep to the women of the family for not settling down, who stops by when he needs a bed and a few square meals, bringing with him a whiff of sin and a few great stories. He travels the small towns of the Dakotas and Minnesota during the Depression, taking on sign-painting jobs for grocery stores and law offices when they're available, and camping by the side of the road in his modified Model T. When the jobs are few on the ground, he'll take on a murder investigation.

In "A Way with Widows," his sister asks him to come to Red Ford, North Dakota, to help clear a neighbor of killing her husband, who was found on the stairs of another woman's house. In "No Badge, No Gun," a minister who has heard of Wilcox's reputation as an investigator asks him to solve the murder of his niece, found dead in the basement of a church. Wilcox's investigating style consists of wandering around town, talking to people, gathering threads of facts and weaving them into a plausible story. He's suspicious, but not cynical. Told about the perfect character of a churchgoing man, he observes, "Nothing in this world raises more doubts in my mind than apparently perfect young men."

Yet Wilcox is also a flawed man. He makes mistakes and is perfectly capable of being turned by a pretty widow with something to hide. His attempts at seduction sometimes succeed, but more often fail, which makes sense at a time when a woman's reputation could be affected by who she's seen with.

One hopes for better things for Adams and Wilcox, but if it doesn't happen, it won't be the fault of the publisher. Like most of Walker's books, these are beautiful to look at -- details from Edward Hopper's paintings appear on most of them, which is a nice change from the usual blood and skulls that passes for art on most mystery covers -- and the $8.95 price tag is more than reasonable for these absorbing tales of small-town crimes of passion.

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing novel in the Wilcox series.., December 23, 2006

By 

Peter LaPrade (worcester ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Way with Widows (Carl Wilcox Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This is about the third Wilcox novel in a row that made it seem like maybe the writer was in a creative rut or something. In this installment of the series, Carl is asked by his somewhat naive sister Annabelle to look into a murder where everyone suspects a friend of hers. A leader in the local band was home stabbed to death at a neighbor's, and signs point to the man's wife as the killer, but then a witness ends up dead under suspictious circumstances. He then does some more probing into the dead musician and beds yet another widow. In the end, he finds that nothing is as deadly as a mother's love for her child, and brings the true killer to justice.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If it was any better it would be mediocre, December 9, 2002

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Way With Widows (Paperback)

Adams is not widely available in my native UK and I cannot say I am experiencing any sense of cultural deprivation if this entry in the Carl Wilcox series is typical of its quality.
Wilcox has had a colourful past--veteran of WW1,former convict and now an itinerant sign painter in the Mid West in the Great Depression and a man who has established a reputation as a sskilled investigator Why then does he come across as so dull in the book?
He is asked by a relative in North Dakota to dig up evidence that will exonerate a friend who is suspected of murdering her husband.Suspects are not exactly scarce--there is the nubile neighbour and her mildly retarded daughter;his partner in a clothing store known to be resentful of the deceased's less than hands on approach to business,and members of a dance band he once lead some of whom feel they are being held back by his less than dynamic leadership
Wilcox questions suspects,sleeps around with several female charcters and teaches his nephew to fight and bored me into a light coma in the process
Turgid,Unexciting .No sense of place or period.
Its boring and no condemnation can be more damning