Dead Letter

Harry Stoner Mystery #3

by Jonathan Valin

The professor was an eccentric old bird, and his daughter was a delicate flower. So how could Harry Stoner suspect the snake pit of hatred and greed he was walking into that winter day when he agreed to find a missing document for Professor Daryl Lovingwell? Following Sarah Lovingwell to a subversive group landed Stoner face-to-face with a towering ex-marine making a new career of murder. Before Stoner could catch his balance, one of the two Lovingwells was dead, and snow-steeped Cincinnati was cut through the center by a highway of blood and violence. Harry Stoner was in the middle of it-holding the pieces of an explosive puzzle of lies. Blackmail, adultery, and evil-an evil you'd never associate with a sensitive little man in tweed, until you saw good people die before your eyes.

Genres: Mystery, Novels, Fiction, Detective

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Jonathan Valin is an American mystery author best known for the Harry Stoner detective series. He won the Shamus Award for best mystery novel of 1989. After writing eleven Harry Stoner novels over a 14-year period, he took a break from mystery writing to help found Fi, a magazine of music criticism. He now works as an editor and reviewer for magazines.

He is an alumnus of the University of Chicago and lived there for many years.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is always a bit of a risk revisiting a series of books you once loved, and forty years ago I loved Jonathan Valin’s series of Harry Stoner mysteries. P.I. Stoner was tough, but sensitve too . . . and so was his creator’s prose. Valin had a poet’s eye, a musicians ear, and yet he possessed the dark vision necessary to create scenes of abrupt and disturbing violence.

But perhaps what pleased me most—though I hate to admit it—was that the series was set in my home town of Cincinnati, Ohio. (I had moved to Columbus five years before, and was still homesick for the scenes of my youth.)

Recently I turned seventy, and I don’t think I’m homesick anymore. The places of my youth that Stoner writes about—the Hyde Park Library, the Eden Park Overlook, Calhoun Street across from the University, the dens of vice across the river in Covington—are still pleasant to read about, but they have a lesser hold on me now. And now Valin’s prose, though poetic, seems forced at times (particular when Stoner is trying to be sensitive), and the plots aren’t nearly as good as I remember.

This particular plot, involving a scientist who hires Stoner to discover whether his hippie revolutionary daughter stole “top secret” files from his personal safe, is particular murky and unsatisfying—its characters muddy rather than enigmatic, its resolution improbably complicated.

It's not all bad. Stoner is fierce and likable, some of the incidental characters are memorable, and the scenes of violence and menace still pack a punch. For example, there's a good scene featuring a police interrogation and a heavy phone book, and a sequence involving explosions at the abandoned amusement park of old Coney Island that is particularly fine.

Oh, what the hell. I'm going to read another Stoner. I guess I'm still a little nostalgic (right now I'm thinking of Coney Island's roller coaster, "The Shooting Star"), and Dead Letter, though flawed, is a solid mystery.

[Cathy DuPont · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a Jonathan Valin again, my new favorite writer with my new favorite character, Harry Stoner, P. I.

This is #3 in the series and although I do like to read in order, I'm not fanatical about it. This book was on the library shelf so I walked right out of the library, took it home and cracked it open.

Love that Harry, love this adventure which kept me guessing from beginning to end.

I'm taking my GR friend Harry's idea...when he reads the first book in the series he writes an extensive review then refers the later books in the series which he's read, back to his first review.

Great idea, Harry, and that's what I'm doing here. Valin's first book was The Lime Pit, where he introduces a real P.I. Well, he certainly seems real to me.


I'm Not the Only One

And Harry is stylish, a natty dresser when needed. He knows without a doubt he knows how to dress for any occasion. Whether it's a cocktail party (which he doesn't look forward to but for his job, his work, anything goes) or hanging out at Busy Bee on Ludlow in Cincy.

This is how he would start his wardrobe for the evening:




This is what he would not start with for any occasion:



Every book it appears we get to know a little more about what makes Harry tick and I'm looking forward to following him to the ends of the...well, to number 11 anyway.

OK, here's a quote I liked: It's embarrassing to keep a secret that no one else is interested in. It's like holding the bag on a snipe hunt or being sent out for a left-handed wrench."

I have personal knowledge about those snipe hunts, having been on one.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third in the Harry Stoner series, and a good early '80's PI series. Harry, a soft-hearted (but, also hard headed) ex Vietnam vet, former cop in Cincinnati. Valin has a good feeling for pace, and a good storyteller.

[Papirklip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published 1981, so an old book. Good for that period of time. No modern tech (eg mobiles, DNA, fingerprinting still new).

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harry Stoner investigates mysterious death of client who hired him to find a missing document. Not too good . . . two stars might be pushing it.

[Subscription · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very late reveal to plot...somewhat tortuous fact pattern. Enjoyable read, but not my favorite Stoner.

[Machka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main plot was intriguing, but the I could have done without the whole section in the middle that didn't seem connected to the main plot.

[Betsy]

Harry Stoner Mystery, Book 3

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook. Harry Stoner is a Cincinnati private eye. He is hired by a prim and proper university physics professor to find out if his daughter stole top secret documents from his personal safe. The daughter is a communist and hates everything her father stands for. But when Harry starts looking into the theft things seem very different than the little professor has portrayed. When the professor is murdered, Harry discovers many very contradictory things about the man. And, he finds many dark, disturbing secrets about those around the man. Is there espionage afoot, or is this a father-daughter conflict? Harry must dig deep to find the unexpected answers. I enjoyed the twists and turns in the plot.

[John Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Library Audio
Professor Daryl Lovingwell was an eccentric old bird, who commits initially what looks like a suicide. But it is a murder. The secret intelligent papers kept at the professors home then stolen appears made up as no one knows about them but finally they are letters from another professor to another male faculty member. So he is being blackmailed. The daughter probably stole the etters and is the one who did kill her father. The professor her father turn out not to be just an old eccentric professor but a very power and money hungry individualHe was planning to murder his daughter, Sarah Lovingwell or move her to suicide. She just gets there first. Because stoner gets her off from the cops by highlighting thatthe murder was most likely the work of the blackmailed professor. But as his wife pointed out he did not have the tempament. Stoner can not pick up his relationship with the girl once he realises.
Sarah Lovingwell belangs to a subversive group of communists and she lands Stoner face-to-face with a towering ex-marine making a new career of murder. The exmarine has a girl akaren and other contcts who with the FBI try to arrange meets to intice the ex marine to trap him. Eventually succeeding but after many are killed. Before Stoner could catch his balance, one of the two Lovingwells was dead, and snow-steeped Cincinnati was cut through the center by a highway of blood and violence.
Harry Stoner was in the middle of it--holding the pieces of an explosive puzzle of lies. Blackmail, adultery, and evil--an evil you'd never associate with a sensitive little man in tweed, until you saw good people die before your eyes…

[Oscar Dario]

it's a book very interesting and i wanted to found a mystery of this book.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another mystery in the Cincinnati area. This one centered in Clifton and the University of Cincinnati. Knowing the area tends to make the story more interesting.

[Rushbug23 · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn't really like this one