Soldier's Gap

By David Schwinghammer

When high school principal Jerry Egge sets out on his morning jog, he spots a red scrawl on the water tower, suggesting he go screw himself. Fifteen minutes later, Jerry is dead, bludgeoned to death... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158736039X
• ISBN13: 9781587360398
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Ipublisher, Inc.
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Schwinghammer ?Nails It?

Schwinghammer's story takes place in the "fictional" town of Soldier, Minnesota. "Fictional" - that's the most amazing thing about the book to me because Schwinghammer makes Soldier seem so real I can not only see it, I can smell it. In some ways Soldier's Gap is a traditional "who-done-it" mystery, but in so many other ways it's anything but a traditional mystery. Deputy County Sheriff, David Jenkins, is confronted with the biggest case of his young career, the murder of high school principal Jerry Egge. Along with his partners in crime-solving, "Night-Deputy" Mingo - a Mescalero Appache, and Lucille - a newly hired assistant with a weight problem, Jenkins must methodically sift through a maze of confusing evidence/clues and confront a plethora of possible suspects. Compounding the situation, or maybe helping the situation - I'm not sure which, Jenkins experiences episodic "visions" in which he catches glimpses of key events in Jerry Egge's life. At times these visions help steer Jenkins in the direction of the killer and at other times they only serve to make the case more confusing. Normally I'm not a fan of para-psychological stuff but somehow Schwinghammer makes it work for me. What I like best about the book are the characters. Jenkins and Mingo are kind of a laid-back, modern day version of the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Lucille is surprisingly, yet believably, competent. And the endless stream of possible suspects ranging from the school superintendent to a bizarre assortment of teenagers are just so quirky that you can't help but get wrapped up in them. Schwinghammer does a beautiful job of keeping the story line moving and a masterful job of pulling it all together at the end. About the only thing I didn't like about the book was the individual Chapter Titles and associated quotes/captions - after a while I just stopped paying attention to them. Over the past two months I've read Soldier's Gap and three "best-sellers" by well-established authors. It's no contest - Soldier's Gap is by far the best book of the lot.

An Onion Worth Peeling

I was glad when Jerry Egge was murdered at the end of the first chapter of The Soldiers Gap, because the guy was a whiny irritant. I was delighted to find out that he also irritated almost everyyone in his small, midwestern town - from his boss, who wanted to fire him; to his wife, who slept with his boss; to his children, who really weren't his. Everyone, it seems, had a reason to want Jerry Egge dead. That makes a fun murder investigation, especially when the suspects are of the quirky Twin Peaks variety.The book sets up its own unique world, and like any travels into an exotic location, it takes a while to get your bearings. A lot of the characters are quirky - in fact, almost everyone in this book is quirky - variety - from the teenage sexpots to the mystical Native American deputy.It took me a while to get into the rhymth of the book and accept it on its own terms, but that's also the case of traveling to many foreign countries where I eventually had the time of my life.The author is, his bio tells us, a long-time miswestern high school teacher, and he is adroit at capturing the smouldering undercurrents in an apparently placid small town. This ain't Mayberry and the head of the investigation ain't Andy Griffith (Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins arrives on the scene of the murder with a hangover). Jenkins, it is obvious from the start, has his own demons, and they become more apparent as the murder investigation goes along. In fact, solving the murder is only one of the many mysteries in this layered book. It's an onion well worth peeling.

Enthusiastically recommended reading for mystery buffs

Dave Schwinghammer's Soldier's Gap is a intriguing and entertaining mystery centering on the murder of James Egge, a local high school principal. Arriving on the scene of a gruesomely bludgeoned corpse, Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins has a psychic experience of the murdered victim's life. Now Dave Jenkins has a unwilling but personal stake in searching for the killer, through small-town politics, trailer park kids, and an illicit love triangle. Meanwhile, the night deputy and Mescalero Apache Mingo Jones wants to hold a ghost medicine ceremony for his former small-town friend Egge, to ensure that Egge's soul is not trapped between the Shadow World and the Land of Ever Summer. Soldier's Gap is enthusiastically recommended reading for mystery buffs!

Murder isn't usually this much fun

If you're a fan of the Coen Brothers' vison of the Midwest, if you've enjoyed Pete Hautman's mysteries, if you like the snappy dailogue of Janet Evanovich, then you'll get a good read from Dave Schwinghammer. Dave Jenkins, a rough-around-the-edges deputy, finds himself baffled not only by the murders that keep happening in his town, but by a voice from beyond the grave that scares him as much as it seems to be trying to help him. He's getting to the bottom of this case, despite being bogged down by petty small-town politics, rampant juvenile delinquency, and trouble on the job that's a potent mixture of professional jealousy and the strain of finding himself at the apex of a love triangle with his boss's daughter and the high school crush he never quite stopped pining for. Soldier's Gap is a smorgasboard of a book, full of quirky yet entirely true-to-life characters that offers humor, mystery, suspense and romance. It's a fun read.