Not only is it Friday, but Barry is
back to kick off February with another all new review. Make sure you check out the full FFB list
over at Patti’s blog.
SARATOGA BACKTALK
(1994) by Stephen Dobyns
Reviewed by Barry Ergang
The first
I knew of Stephen Dobyns, most likely somewhere back in the 1980s, was as a
poet. It was only sometime thereafter that I learned he also wrote novels of
various types and genres, among them the Charlie Bradshaw mystery series, the
titles of which all start with “Saratoga” because the stories are set in
Saratoga Springs, New York. Bradshaw is a former police detective turned
private investigator.
As the
entry at the Thrilling Detective Web Site about the Charlie Bradshaw series indicates, Saratoga
Backtalk (my sole experience with this series to date) is the eighth title
in the series and the first to be narrated by Bradshaw’s friend, unofficial
colleague, self-proclaimed “rat,” and “sort of” con artist, Victor Plotz. In
this one, wealthy horse-owner/breeder Bernard Logan goes to Bradshaw’s office
where he meets Victor, who mendaciously says that as Charlie’s associate, it’s
his job to screen prospective clients. Logan wants to hire Charlie because he’s
convinced his much younger second wife of eight years, Brenda, and his foreman,
Randall Hanks, are plotting to kill him.
Logan is
the major stockholder of Battlefield Farms, located in a town ten miles from
Saratoga. “It’s a family-owned business,” he explains. “My wife, plus a son and
stepson from my first marriage. We have a lot of horses, both our own and those
we train or breed for others.” After learning more about Logan’s family members
and some of Battlefield Farms’ employees and the persons to whom they’re
allied, and after collecting a hefty retainer, Victor assures Logan that he and
Charlie will be there the next morning. After he explains the situation,
Bradshaw reminds him that he, Charlie, has jury duty starting Monday. Victor figures
they can settle matters over the weekend, whereupon Charlie agrees to go with
him the next morning.
They barely
arrive when they “saw people running, about half a dozen of them dashing toward
the horse barn. A horse was whinnying so loud that it was more like a scream,
and there were banging noises as if the horse was kicking down its stall.” A
moment later an employee tells them that Logan is dead, having been kicked to
death by a horse they later learn is named Triclops. The question is whether
this was a bizarre accident or a murder.
As the
story progresses, several other mysterious deaths occurring along the way, Victor
stays on the case, a kind of Archie Goodwin to Charlie Bradshaw’s Nero Wolfe,
reporting what he learns to Charlie, who
serves out his jury duty requirements while intermittently joining
Victor at Battlefield Farms and environs whenever he can.
A couple
of amusing subplots concern Victor obsessing about having to spend the summer
with a twelve-year-old granddaughter who is ultra-religious in ways he
definitely is not, and with him trying evict an undesirable outlaw biker-type named
Ernie Flako and his girlfriend Puma from a place they’re renting from him.
Victor
Plotz’s wryly comic narrative style includes occasional deliberately ungrammatical
moments combined with felicitous turns of phrase reflective of author Dobyns’s
poetic background. It results in a neatly-paced whodunit which melds moderate
characterization, some on-screen violence (but not a lot of gore), and intelligent detection.
Caveats: a
few f-bombs, and some sexual explicitness, which will undoubtedly alienate some
readers.
© 2018 Barry Ergang
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2 comments:
I enjoyed the early novels in Stephen Dobyns SARATOGA series. I'll have to read these later ones. Nice reviw!
Thanks, George. One of these days I'll have to read some of the earlier books in the series.
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