From the massive archive…
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.
Barry Ergang ©2018, 2022
Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. Some of it is available at Amazon and at Smashwords. His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/.
Really like Dobyns' Church of Dead Girls.
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