Everybody's Somebody's Fool: A Sam McCain Mystery

By Ed Gorman

Book Overview

It's Christmastime 1960 in Black River Falls, Iowa, but with an Indian summer keeping the temperature at 75 degrees, it sure doesn't feel like winter. It's so warm, in fact, that the Lucky Star Drive-In is still open, and Rick Conroy is still drag-racing the nights away with his friends on a deadly stretch of highway outside of town. When Rick slams fatally into a bridge at 90 miles an hour, holiday cheer veers toward foul play, for the police find his brake line to be as lacerated as his spine. The solution does not come easily for struggling lawyer and sometime-investigator Sam McCain, who is dragged into the case by the incorrigible Judge Esme Anne Whitney. Leads go nowhere, tensions mount. Add to that his personal problems--his father has lung cancer and a recent one-night stand is pointing to scandal--and it's no wonder the holiday heat wave is making this McCain Christmas the darkest, and most dangerous, of the decade. [Sam McCain is] "the kind of hero any small town could take to its heart."--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review Gorman wonderfully evokes the sorrows and pleasures of a certain Midwestern past."--The Wall Street Journal "Gorman's successful capturing of time and place ... sharply evokes the twilight of the '50s."--Los Angeles Times

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786711140
• ISBN13: 9780786711147
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

You'd be a fool not to read this

OK, maybe it's because I was a teenager during the late 50s, early 60s that I like the Sam McCain series so much, because each McCain novel is such a peachy trip down memory lane. But, really, it is a lot more than that: McCain is an excellent writer, a wordsmith, even. His writing is sparse, sensitive and muscular, with the occasional nail-on-the-head metaphor. The small-town characters are all quite colorful, but very believable. Most important of all, he establishes plausible crimes that have various suspects, with twists and surprises in the denouement. For instance, in this one, who would have ever thought that the murderer was...? Just go read the book and have a great time!

SAM McCAIN STRIKES AGAIN !!!

Another great Sam McCain mystery !!! If you liked the others, you will LOVE this one. GREAT READ !! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.