Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?: A Sam McCain Mystery [Hardcover]

Ed Gorman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sam McCain Mysteries | Publication Date: January 29, 2001

The acclaimed Sam McCain series continues - with another case of murder in America's mid-century heartland. In this charming, expertly crafted new mystery set in the twilight of Iowa's 1950s, fledgling lawyer Sam McCain is dancing to a different tune when he discovers that the beautiful blonde who's been tracking him in her black Ford convertible is interested in more than his red ragtop. She's Lila Leigh Mulchaey, and McCain's in love. Two problems, though, darken McCain's mood: Lila is pregnant, and Philip Mulchaey, her father - an outspoken advocate of left-wing causes who'd been fired from his job in the State Department during the McCarthy trials - stands at the center of the political storm surrounding the upcoming visit of Nikita Kruschev to Iowa. Then Philip Mulchaey turns up dead. That he was murdered for his politics, everybody, including McCain's sometime employer, the imperious Judge Esme Anne Whitney, assumes. McCain, however, is not so sure. Murder's usually more personal in Black River Falls.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1959, anti-Communist sentiment runs highDeven in the Iowa town of Black River Falls. There, a murderer deposits the body of an alleged Communist sympathizer on the doorstep of PI Sam McCain (Wake Up Little Susie). Things really heat up after the two prime suspects also turn up dead. Exciting and intense, this is for fans of the series and historical mysteries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Joe McCarthy's better-dead-than-red mentality has penetrated even the small Iowa burg of Black River Falls, where young Sam McCain supplements his earnings as a lawyer by working as a private investigator. At the conclusion of a photo-op appearance by touring Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev, former State Department official and Black River Falls resident, Richard Conners, a notorious liberal, indicates he'd like to hire McCain. He shows up at McCain's apartment a day later, near death, but he won't expose his attacker. McCain has no faith in the investigative ability of local law enforcement, so he proceeds on his own. In short order, he's also confronted with the deaths of a former FBI agent now fronting an anti-Communist organization and two other right-wing activists. The third Sam McCain case is as compelling and entertaining as its predecessors. Gorman, an underappreciated master of the genre, has created an insular, self-contained world in Black River Falls, where good and evil clash with the same heartbreaking results as they have in the more urban crime dramas of Block or Leonard. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (January 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786707755
• ISBN-13: 978-0786707751
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,525,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love and murder on the Iowa plains, September 3, 2001

By 

James L. Roberts "Jim Roberts" (Liberty, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?: A Sam McCain Mystery (Hardcover)

Ed Gorman's dimunitive detective, Sam McCain, has his hands full in this latest entry in the mystery series. Sam has loved, and lost, and loved again, and the concept of missed opportunities runs through this novel as a unique backdrop to the murder mystery within it.

The great Red Scare is in full swing and even McCain's beloved Black River Falls with its quirky citizens and unique history fall to the whipped up hysteria.

Sam keeps his cool, though, despite tripping over more bodies than a medical examiner trainee. A fatally wounded man stumbles to his office to die; a famous man, or as famous as a man from Black River Falls gets. Richard Conners -- rich, successful, and connected -- had wanted to hire McCain to "hold something" for him, and comes to McCain's office to die.

McCain doesn't expect the bumbling police to solve the murder so he begins to look into it and almost immediately runs into a buzz saw in the form of Karl Rivers, a professed FBI agent looking for communists and communist sympathizers. When Rivers turns up dead in McCain's closet, Sam realizes there's somthing really serious going on in Iowa.

The novel is introduced with a quote attributed to W. H. Auden: "I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen."

Gorman does a marvelous job delivering the late 1950s to us as seen through the prism of a modest-sized Iowa town. The Red Scare is not limited to big cities. There are witch hunts everywhere, even in small town Iowa where a spinster teacher is seen as possibly subversive and has to publicly defend herself.

Gorman populates his stories with interesting and engaging characters and does more than tell a good yarn. He leaves you feeling reminiscent of those long ago days when you could get a good breakfast for 60 cents, where a triple feature at the drive in costs a buck, and where a man could make a decent living as a private investigator in a small town, solving a murder.

The story moves quickly and is satisfyingly layered. ....

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McCain's Back and Better than Ever!, March 14, 2001

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?: A Sam McCain Mystery (Hardcover)

September 1959, Khrushchev is visiting Iowa and the citizens of Black River Falls are caught up in the "Red Scare". Richard Conners, a left-leaning professor, political writer and the town's biggest success story is murdered and found with a hammer and sickle painted in blood on his forehead. Sam McCain, a young lawyer who's just getting started and still earning most of his money with his private investigator's license is taking this crime personally. It seems Conner's body ended up dead in his office. Between the anti-communists and left-wingers, a jealous wife and various other citizens, not too fond of Conners, McCain doesn't lack for suspects. But when some of them start turning up dead, too, Sam knows this isn't just about politics. It's starting to look way too personal..... Ed Gorman has done it again. Taken you back to small town life in the nostalgic 1950s with a murder mystery that's just pure fun to read. His quirky, unrivaled cast of characters are wonderful. His writing crisp and smart and full of witty and irreverent dialogue and his vivid scenes, laugh-out-loud funny. This is the third book of a terrific series. If you're new to McCain and gang, start at the beginning with The Day the Music Died. If you're already a fan, you won't be disappointed. Easily read in one sitting, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow is a winner.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing, superb characterizations, December 14, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?: A Sam McCain Mystery (Hardcover)

In 1959 throughout the heartland, everyone knows the Ruskies are coming with Khrushchev visiting Iowa. The Soviet Premier's visit stirs up much activity as the anti-Communists shout "Better Dead than Red." Right wing activists target left wing sympathizing Americans such as noted local writer Richard Conners.

Taking the threats to his life seriously, Richard turns to attorney-sleuth Sam McCain. However, someone still kills Richard painting a hammer and sickle on the victim's forehead. Sam begins to investigate his client's murder with the biggest problem being there is plenty of rabid suspects in Black River Falls.

The third McCain trip back to the fifties is a wonderful trip back in time especially for the older members of the boomers. The story line is fun, the mystery is complex and taut, and the milieu is perfect as Ed Gorman presents Cold war bogeyman number one Khrushchev (with shoes on) visiting Iowa. Sam is a fabulous guide to the era. The historical tidbits add to the feel of a great novel that vividly brings to life an intriguing historical moment that only Mr. Gorman and perhaps the Chambers Brothers would understand.

Harriet Klausner