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The Murderer Vine
New York P.I. Joe Dunne is hired to find and kill the men responsible for the disappearance of three boys, who, during their summer off from college, went to Mississippi to work for the Civil Rights movement. Original.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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March 26, 2012
Three college students travel to Mississippi to work for civil rights and don't come back, and it's up to New York private eye Joe Dunne and his assistant to find out what happened to them. And he gets a hundred thousand apiece for killing their murderers...
The Murderer Vine is a fairly good crime tale. You've got deception, murder, some sexual tension, and a shit storm of bullets at the end. The tension between himself and Kirby, who's posing as his wife, is what keeps the story going. It would make a pretty good movie.
Still, it's not all that great. Joe Dunne isn't that different from most detective characters. Since Dunne has a good idea of who killed the students before he leaves New York, there isn't a lot going on on that front. The reader is left waiting for him to get the drop on the murderers. If it wasn't for the ending, I'd probably give this a 2.5 because it was so predictable. The way the Southern dialogue was written got on my nerves after a while. I was glad when Dunne wrapped things up and headed north.
Not a bad read, especially for Hard Case fans. It's an easy three.
The Murderer Vine is a fairly good crime tale. You've got deception, murder, some sexual tension, and a shit storm of bullets at the end. The tension between himself and Kirby, who's posing as his wife, is what keeps the story going. It would make a pretty good movie.
Still, it's not all that great. Joe Dunne isn't that different from most detective characters. Since Dunne has a good idea of who killed the students before he leaves New York, there isn't a lot going on on that front. The reader is left waiting for him to get the drop on the murderers. If it wasn't for the ending, I'd probably give this a 2.5 because it was so predictable. The way the Southern dialogue was written got on my nerves after a while. I was glad when Dunne wrapped things up and headed north.
Not a bad read, especially for Hard Case fans. It's an easy three.
March 26, 2012
Southern fried revenge. I felt like eating a pan of corn bread while reading it.
Published in 1970 and set a few years earlier, this reprint features Joe Dunne as a low-rent New York private detective who isn’t above taking the occasional strong-arm job like beating up a heroin dealer to stop him from selling near a school.
Three civil rights workers disappeared while on a voter registration drive in Mississippi. (Obviously this was inspired by actual events.) One of the missing kids had a wealthy father who has already used private investigators to learn that they were all killed by five men. The father promises Joe a half-million dollars if he’ll find the bodies and kill the men involved.
Joe isn’t all that happy to become a contract killer, but it’s enough money to get him out of the business altogether, and he’s desperate to move on to something better. Plus, he’s got an ace-in-the-hole. His secretary, Kirby, is a Southern gal complete with an accent, and she knows how the South works. Joe hires her to play his wife and help go undercover in the small Mississippi town so they can talk to people without getting killed. Unfortunately, the cover requires them to act like semi-racist assholes themselves to avoid drawing the wrong kind of attention, and despite their best efforts, it’ll be nearly impossible to get the job done and get away clean.
I really liked the overall set-up for this book, and the lengthy preparations that Joe and Kirby made for their undercover operation in Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement. I also liked the main character. He’s willing to take a dirty job, and he’s pretty good at it. But he doesn’t like himself very much while doing it.
However, for all the planning and build-up to Joe and Kirby going to Mississippi, and how carefully they act while there, the ending is very rushed. Several characters seem like they’re going to be more important later in the book, but just vanish. It’s almost like the author was on a deadline and took too long to write the first three-quarters of the book and threw together an ending. Too bad because a little more pay-off during the last act would have made this a much better read.
Published in 1970 and set a few years earlier, this reprint features Joe Dunne as a low-rent New York private detective who isn’t above taking the occasional strong-arm job like beating up a heroin dealer to stop him from selling near a school.
Three civil rights workers disappeared while on a voter registration drive in Mississippi. (Obviously this was inspired by actual events.) One of the missing kids had a wealthy father who has already used private investigators to learn that they were all killed by five men. The father promises Joe a half-million dollars if he’ll find the bodies and kill the men involved.
Joe isn’t all that happy to become a contract killer, but it’s enough money to get him out of the business altogether, and he’s desperate to move on to something better. Plus, he’s got an ace-in-the-hole. His secretary, Kirby, is a Southern gal complete with an accent, and she knows how the South works. Joe hires her to play his wife and help go undercover in the small Mississippi town so they can talk to people without getting killed. Unfortunately, the cover requires them to act like semi-racist assholes themselves to avoid drawing the wrong kind of attention, and despite their best efforts, it’ll be nearly impossible to get the job done and get away clean.
I really liked the overall set-up for this book, and the lengthy preparations that Joe and Kirby made for their undercover operation in Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement. I also liked the main character. He’s willing to take a dirty job, and he’s pretty good at it. But he doesn’t like himself very much while doing it.
However, for all the planning and build-up to Joe and Kirby going to Mississippi, and how carefully they act while there, the ending is very rushed. Several characters seem like they’re going to be more important later in the book, but just vanish. It’s almost like the author was on a deadline and took too long to write the first three-quarters of the book and threw together an ending. Too bad because a little more pay-off during the last act would have made this a much better read.
March 30, 2020
The Murderer Vine is an absolutely terrific book and an enjoyable read at that. The cover features top-notch artwork by Ken Laager of a compelling blonde in high heels and a bed sheet with her feet wrapped in a vine. Although this precise scene is not in the book, it gives some of the atmosphere of the book and the woman is obviously none other than Kirby. In a brief foreword to the book, Rifkin explains that that, in the Amazon, a vine grows that climbs higher every year and has tentacles that reach out, and block the sunlight and the tree that it grew on eventually dies. He explains that, in South America, it is called La Liana Matador or the Murderer Vine.
The book is definitely hardboiled and definitely noir. It is a combination of a hardboiled detective novel with the subject matter being the famous slaying of the civil rights workers in Mississippi. The route that Rifkin takes to this subject, however, is unique. He doesn't focus on the moral or ethical aspects of that shocking event. In his fictionalized account, a father of one of the three young men who were brutally murdered hires a private eye (Dunne) to go down to Mississippi and find out who did this, get proof of who did it, and execute those responsible. The bounty offered is $100,000 per murderer and that half a million is more than this poor private eye could hope to make in a lifetime. The story is brilliantly told and, although there are a few meanderings in the beginning, it all worked for me.
The story begins in Puerto Lagarto (Porto Lizard) somewhere south of the Yucatan. It is a "dump" that is hot, sweaty, and has no paved streets and only one place with ice. Dunne explains that the refrigerator in the cantina is packed full of beer every morning and "I sit in the Bitterness and drink my way from the front to the back of the refrigerator and look at the bay." He hasn't seen any outsider in two years, but is now offering a sort of confession to a priest who has happened along. He explains: "If someone came here by mistake, he wouldn't like the food or the damp heat or the hammocks or the people. I don't like them either. But there's one big advantage living here. They don't extradite." Let that one sink in for a while.
The tale he tells goes back in time and he describes how he was once worked a job in Haskell (wherever that is) and a pusher had moved into the area, selling to the high school kids and the soccer moms. What happened, he explains, is that "one of the mothers walks in one evening into her fifteen-year-old daughter's room to find the kid mainlining horse into her thigh. Horse, that's heroin." He explains that the police wouldn't do anything and he wanted Dunne to do something, anything.
Well, after doing that job apparently his reputation for getting a tough job done, no questions asked, got out and Parrish walks into his office. "Parrish looked like a rich guy with a problem." The narrator "had him figured for a banker with a nice Bahama tan and a wandering wife who may have been necking with the mate of his chartered fishing boat."
Instead, Parrish leans in and tells him that he wants him to kill five people.
Part of the story (and a major part at that) is the burgeoning romance between Dunne and his secretary, Kirby, who had originally been from the South and had been taking diction lessons trying to lose her upper-class Southern accent. "She had put her legs up on the desk. For the first time I noticed how long they were. She was holding the book above eye level, and her head was tilted backward. Her long yellow hair was swinging free. She was smiling at the book and tugging at her earlobe. I suppose that was the first time I noticed her."
And notices her, he does. "Her eyelids were painted a pale blue. I watched as she ran an index finger over the left one and her thumb over the other. They were the color of an early morning sky in summer."
Kirby volunteers to accompany the detective deep into the South as he will stick out like a sore thumb as a northerner and she can smooth the way with her down-home ways. Of course, once they pose as husband and wife, you know the fireworks are starting.
A lot of first half involves the preparations for going undercover, including creating an identity as a Canadian professor researching accents. The real action takes place as they head into the small town in the South and Dunne has to find ways to make time with the redneck sheriff and his cronies and figure out where the bodies are buried.
The writing is superb and the build-up to the climax is fantastic. This is another selection worthy of being in the Hard Case lineup. Rifkin does a great job of capturing the look and feel of the rural south in the early sixties and the racism embedded in southern society. He makes the reader feel as if they are back in the backwoods country, drinking moonshine with the rednecks who are quick with guns and tire chains and don't tolerate outsiders poking into local affairs.
This is one of those books that, as a reader, you don't want to put down until you finish. It's that good.
The book is definitely hardboiled and definitely noir. It is a combination of a hardboiled detective novel with the subject matter being the famous slaying of the civil rights workers in Mississippi. The route that Rifkin takes to this subject, however, is unique. He doesn't focus on the moral or ethical aspects of that shocking event. In his fictionalized account, a father of one of the three young men who were brutally murdered hires a private eye (Dunne) to go down to Mississippi and find out who did this, get proof of who did it, and execute those responsible. The bounty offered is $100,000 per murderer and that half a million is more than this poor private eye could hope to make in a lifetime. The story is brilliantly told and, although there are a few meanderings in the beginning, it all worked for me.
The story begins in Puerto Lagarto (Porto Lizard) somewhere south of the Yucatan. It is a "dump" that is hot, sweaty, and has no paved streets and only one place with ice. Dunne explains that the refrigerator in the cantina is packed full of beer every morning and "I sit in the Bitterness and drink my way from the front to the back of the refrigerator and look at the bay." He hasn't seen any outsider in two years, but is now offering a sort of confession to a priest who has happened along. He explains: "If someone came here by mistake, he wouldn't like the food or the damp heat or the hammocks or the people. I don't like them either. But there's one big advantage living here. They don't extradite." Let that one sink in for a while.
The tale he tells goes back in time and he describes how he was once worked a job in Haskell (wherever that is) and a pusher had moved into the area, selling to the high school kids and the soccer moms. What happened, he explains, is that "one of the mothers walks in one evening into her fifteen-year-old daughter's room to find the kid mainlining horse into her thigh. Horse, that's heroin." He explains that the police wouldn't do anything and he wanted Dunne to do something, anything.
Well, after doing that job apparently his reputation for getting a tough job done, no questions asked, got out and Parrish walks into his office. "Parrish looked like a rich guy with a problem." The narrator "had him figured for a banker with a nice Bahama tan and a wandering wife who may have been necking with the mate of his chartered fishing boat."
Instead, Parrish leans in and tells him that he wants him to kill five people.
Part of the story (and a major part at that) is the burgeoning romance between Dunne and his secretary, Kirby, who had originally been from the South and had been taking diction lessons trying to lose her upper-class Southern accent. "She had put her legs up on the desk. For the first time I noticed how long they were. She was holding the book above eye level, and her head was tilted backward. Her long yellow hair was swinging free. She was smiling at the book and tugging at her earlobe. I suppose that was the first time I noticed her."
And notices her, he does. "Her eyelids were painted a pale blue. I watched as she ran an index finger over the left one and her thumb over the other. They were the color of an early morning sky in summer."
Kirby volunteers to accompany the detective deep into the South as he will stick out like a sore thumb as a northerner and she can smooth the way with her down-home ways. Of course, once they pose as husband and wife, you know the fireworks are starting.
A lot of first half involves the preparations for going undercover, including creating an identity as a Canadian professor researching accents. The real action takes place as they head into the small town in the South and Dunne has to find ways to make time with the redneck sheriff and his cronies and figure out where the bodies are buried.
The writing is superb and the build-up to the climax is fantastic. This is another selection worthy of being in the Hard Case lineup. Rifkin does a great job of capturing the look and feel of the rural south in the early sixties and the racism embedded in southern society. He makes the reader feel as if they are back in the backwoods country, drinking moonshine with the rednecks who are quick with guns and tire chains and don't tolerate outsiders poking into local affairs.
This is one of those books that, as a reader, you don't want to put down until you finish. It's that good.
May 24, 2008
The Murderer Vine, is part of the Hard Case crime series, devoted to reissuing minor but deserving works of hard boiled detective fiction, or new works written in a classic hard boiled style. Originally published in 1970, this is a a VERY minor work that must have made the cut largely because of the novelty of its setting--the segregated South in the 1960's. The story involves a detective hired to go undercover in Mississippi to kill the murderers of three civil rights workers (obviously modeled on the 1964 slayings of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner). Its my impression (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that most classic hard boiled novels are set in major cities like New York or Los Angeles, and that whatever politics there are in the stories tend to be subtextual rather than overt. So I thought it would be interesting to read one set in the south in which the politics were more on the surface. Turns out it isn't, at least not in this case.
This book fails on so many levels. First, it fails to entertain, the cardinal sin for pulp fiction. All of the faults I list below would be forgivable if the book was a fun read. Its not. There's virtually no suspense. You know how the story is going to end almost from the very beginning. The characters are one dimensional and predictable. The first person narration is intended to come off as deadpan but just feels flat and lifeless. One simple way of injecting a little psychological drama would have been be to have Joe Dunne, the private eye turned would be assassin, grapple with the morality of vigilante justice. After all, here's an otherwise law-abiding detective who suddenly agrees to become an executioner for hire. Granted the people he's contracted to knock off more than deserve it, but wouldn't this be cause for a little bit of soul searching? Rather than worrying about the state of his soul, Dunne worries only about getting killed or caught. Maybe this is par for the course for the hard-boiled genre, but it makes Dunne a less than interesting character.
Next, the book fails to grapple adequately with its setting--the small town/rural south--or its political context--the civil rights struggle of the 60's. The portrait of small-town Mississippi doesn't feel completely invented, but the characters are basically fleshed out stereotypes who could walk onto the set of the Dukes of Hazard without losing much depth or nuance. Rifkin also makes the unfortunate choice of trying to write the southern characters in dialect. There are times when he almost pulls it off, but mostly he just winds up creating ludicrously over-the-top, and in the case of the African American characters, even racist caricatures.
One of the classic strategies of detective fiction and true crime literature is to moralize just enough to give the reader permission to vicariously wallow in the sordid details of life in the underworld. This strategy backfires in The Murderer Vine because the attitudes the reader is asked to inhabit are just too ugly, and the characters expressing them are too one dimensional. The white characters are irredeemable racists, the black characters are straight out of a minstrel show, and the hero is largely amoral. Dunne ritually denounces the racism of the region, but he has to feign sympathy for prevailing attitudes in order to ingratiate himself with the locals, and the author seems to take just a little too much pleasure in narrating instances in which he humiliates African American characters. I honestly can't tell whether this is a clumsy attempt to make readers confront the ugliness of unreconstructed racism, or a tasteless attempt to shock. And Dunne's love interest Kirby, a transplanted daughter of the South, sings "Oh, I'm a Good Ole Rebel" with just a little too much conviction. In order to make this stuff go down smoothly, you need a charming psychopath like Humbert Humbert, but Rifkin is no pulp Nabokov.
This book fails on so many levels. First, it fails to entertain, the cardinal sin for pulp fiction. All of the faults I list below would be forgivable if the book was a fun read. Its not. There's virtually no suspense. You know how the story is going to end almost from the very beginning. The characters are one dimensional and predictable. The first person narration is intended to come off as deadpan but just feels flat and lifeless. One simple way of injecting a little psychological drama would have been be to have Joe Dunne, the private eye turned would be assassin, grapple with the morality of vigilante justice. After all, here's an otherwise law-abiding detective who suddenly agrees to become an executioner for hire. Granted the people he's contracted to knock off more than deserve it, but wouldn't this be cause for a little bit of soul searching? Rather than worrying about the state of his soul, Dunne worries only about getting killed or caught. Maybe this is par for the course for the hard-boiled genre, but it makes Dunne a less than interesting character.
Next, the book fails to grapple adequately with its setting--the small town/rural south--or its political context--the civil rights struggle of the 60's. The portrait of small-town Mississippi doesn't feel completely invented, but the characters are basically fleshed out stereotypes who could walk onto the set of the Dukes of Hazard without losing much depth or nuance. Rifkin also makes the unfortunate choice of trying to write the southern characters in dialect. There are times when he almost pulls it off, but mostly he just winds up creating ludicrously over-the-top, and in the case of the African American characters, even racist caricatures.
One of the classic strategies of detective fiction and true crime literature is to moralize just enough to give the reader permission to vicariously wallow in the sordid details of life in the underworld. This strategy backfires in The Murderer Vine because the attitudes the reader is asked to inhabit are just too ugly, and the characters expressing them are too one dimensional. The white characters are irredeemable racists, the black characters are straight out of a minstrel show, and the hero is largely amoral. Dunne ritually denounces the racism of the region, but he has to feign sympathy for prevailing attitudes in order to ingratiate himself with the locals, and the author seems to take just a little too much pleasure in narrating instances in which he humiliates African American characters. I honestly can't tell whether this is a clumsy attempt to make readers confront the ugliness of unreconstructed racism, or a tasteless attempt to shock. And Dunne's love interest Kirby, a transplanted daughter of the South, sings "Oh, I'm a Good Ole Rebel" with just a little too much conviction. In order to make this stuff go down smoothly, you need a charming psychopath like Humbert Humbert, but Rifkin is no pulp Nabokov.
August 12, 2025
It's closer to a 3.5, but it's a solid read. Dunne is a private eye who used to be a NY detective. He did mainly little jobs like tailing spouses, but after one little job that had a little bit of rough stuff, his name came up for something more. A rich man wants him to kill five people. He wants proof that his boy is dead and that these five killed him. He offered over half a million in cash when everything was done. Well, for that kind of money, he couldn't say no.
Recommended, since overall, it is a pretty good tale. The author uses a weird device of Dunne telling his tale to a priest in the middle of nowhere Mexico where he is hiding out. It doesn't lead to anything. The device is not needed, should have just been a present tense story.
Recommended, since overall, it is a pretty good tale. The author uses a weird device of Dunne telling his tale to a priest in the middle of nowhere Mexico where he is hiding out. It doesn't lead to anything. The device is not needed, should have just been a present tense story.
May 19, 2020
Really enjoyed this book as it had great pace and a good ending.
May 2, 2021
Taut little noir thriller which exploits just about every Southern cliche on the way to getting where it's going. (Accents... check. Chitlins... check. Hint of voodoo... check.) The framing makes it a little predictable, but no less fun, and Rifkin has a soupcon of Chandler's poetry in his soul.
April 7, 2017
O pai de um estudante assassinado com dois amigos no Mississipi contrata um detetive para desvendar o crime. Razoável, mas não é dos mais empolgantes.
December 11, 2015
Out of the 20 or so Hard Case novels I've read, THE MURDERER VINE is my favorite. Don't be put off by the mixed reviews--everything about this novel is top notch. If I were a college professor teaching a class in mystery lit., this one would be on my syllabus.
In terms of genre, THE MURDERER VINE is a perfect blend of novelty and cliche. The world-weary gumshoe and his smart, blonde bombshell secretary are exactly the sort of team-up you'd expect from a noir-ish detective story, but the Southern-fried setting provides a unique twist--as does the fact that the main character is as much an assassin as he is a detective. These characters may be pulp fiction stereotypes, but they are stereotypes done exceptionally well. Not only did I feel fully empathetic toward the gumshoe, but his spunky secretary may very well be the closest I've ever come to falling in romantic love with a girl who only exists within the pages of a book.
The plot itself was loosely inspired by a true story, and Shepard Rifkin does an incredible job of making the novel seem authentic. All the dialog, descriptions, and factual information--covering everything from fishing to night photography--felt dead-on accurate, resulting in a feeling of realism that ratcheted up the tension with each succeeding chapter. If my nails were long enough to bite, they'd be jagged and raw by now.
I have only three very minor complaints. The first is that Rifkin has a habit of sometimes using too many short, punchy sentences in a row--making the book occasionally feel as though it were written by the author of FUN WITH DICK AND JANE.
The second thing is that sometimes the investigation seems a bit too easy. There are a couple of scenes in which suspects say something incriminating at the exact moment the gumshoe arrives to eavesdrop on them. It would have been nice to see the gumshoe foiled in his efforts a bit more, but I realize this would have made the book longer and more slowly paced. So, it's a trade-off I am happy to live with.
Lastly, the narrative of the story is framed in a way that telegraphs much of the ending. This framing device does a good job of explaining why events are being narrated from a first-person perspective, but it absolutely wrecks any chance the book has of surprising us.
On a final note, it perplexes me that this book was not better received by Hard Case readers in general, and that it is one of the first Hard Case titles to go out of print. Perhaps people were hoping for a more traditional noir mystery: something with more plot complications, more surprises, and cliffhangers and the end of each chapter. Or maybe the themes of racism made them uncomfortable (not hard to do in this hyper-sensitive day and age where even HUCKLEBERRY FINN is considered controversial). In my opinion, though, if you appreciate great writing, and if you are a relatively patient reader who enjoys a good slow-burn and who can stomach the story's innate unpleasantness, you ought to jump over to Amazon and purchase a copy of THE MURDERER VINE just as soon as you finish reading this review.
In terms of genre, THE MURDERER VINE is a perfect blend of novelty and cliche. The world-weary gumshoe and his smart, blonde bombshell secretary are exactly the sort of team-up you'd expect from a noir-ish detective story, but the Southern-fried setting provides a unique twist--as does the fact that the main character is as much an assassin as he is a detective. These characters may be pulp fiction stereotypes, but they are stereotypes done exceptionally well. Not only did I feel fully empathetic toward the gumshoe, but his spunky secretary may very well be the closest I've ever come to falling in romantic love with a girl who only exists within the pages of a book.
The plot itself was loosely inspired by a true story, and Shepard Rifkin does an incredible job of making the novel seem authentic. All the dialog, descriptions, and factual information--covering everything from fishing to night photography--felt dead-on accurate, resulting in a feeling of realism that ratcheted up the tension with each succeeding chapter. If my nails were long enough to bite, they'd be jagged and raw by now.
I have only three very minor complaints. The first is that Rifkin has a habit of sometimes using too many short, punchy sentences in a row--making the book occasionally feel as though it were written by the author of FUN WITH DICK AND JANE.
The second thing is that sometimes the investigation seems a bit too easy. There are a couple of scenes in which suspects say something incriminating at the exact moment the gumshoe arrives to eavesdrop on them. It would have been nice to see the gumshoe foiled in his efforts a bit more, but I realize this would have made the book longer and more slowly paced. So, it's a trade-off I am happy to live with.
Lastly, the narrative of the story is framed in a way that telegraphs much of the ending. This framing device does a good job of explaining why events are being narrated from a first-person perspective, but it absolutely wrecks any chance the book has of surprising us.
On a final note, it perplexes me that this book was not better received by Hard Case readers in general, and that it is one of the first Hard Case titles to go out of print. Perhaps people were hoping for a more traditional noir mystery: something with more plot complications, more surprises, and cliffhangers and the end of each chapter. Or maybe the themes of racism made them uncomfortable (not hard to do in this hyper-sensitive day and age where even HUCKLEBERRY FINN is considered controversial). In my opinion, though, if you appreciate great writing, and if you are a relatively patient reader who enjoys a good slow-burn and who can stomach the story's innate unpleasantness, you ought to jump over to Amazon and purchase a copy of THE MURDERER VINE just as soon as you finish reading this review.
May 9, 2013
Normally Hard Case Crime novels are a welcome diversion into a world of noir, this was a rare disappointment. A PI is hired to enact vengeance on a group of Southerners who have gotten away with murdering three students that were working for Civil Rights. Rather than being enjoyable, the abundant racism, ignorance, and hatred that is obviously vital to the plot is difficult to read. The first half of the book deals with background and only then delves into the PIs actual journey south to infiltrate the group responsible for the murderers. The major problem I had, however, was that the story is related very matter-of-factly, detailing how the PI manages to get into this job and how he manages to pull it off. There is little to no deviation from his goals, that is there is no actual conflict. He never appears in real danger, the plan never seems to run a risk of falling apart, etc. There is no suspense, there are no surprises until the final chapter's 'twist' that comes too little and too late.
February 28, 2021
Here's just another misguided tale of a Northerner's view of the South. Full of typical stereotypes prevalent for decades before this and still alive today. Standard error had here: The Southerners are written in spoken dialect and the New Yorker is not. Sheesh!
The story is also an over trod "civil rights" tale of murdered black people by local people in authority. Even by the late '60s, when this initially came out, it would have been nice not to plot this as hundreds of books before it had been.
What's really funny is that near the end of the book the "hero" complains of stereotypes in fiction as the book is full of those.
There are also issues with lack of understanding a cypress swamp and traveling woods, but that's minor to the poor plotting. The effort of flashback throughout also doesn't aid the direction of the book as the ending seems obvious.
Bottom line: i don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
The story is also an over trod "civil rights" tale of murdered black people by local people in authority. Even by the late '60s, when this initially came out, it would have been nice not to plot this as hundreds of books before it had been.
What's really funny is that near the end of the book the "hero" complains of stereotypes in fiction as the book is full of those.
There are also issues with lack of understanding a cypress swamp and traveling woods, but that's minor to the poor plotting. The effort of flashback throughout also doesn't aid the direction of the book as the ending seems obvious.
Bottom line: i don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
May 27, 2009
Mississippi Burning crossed with a detective novel crossed with a revenge novel crossed with stupidity. North meets South done with a nuance that makes My Cousin Vinny look like Proust. Dumbest of the dumb (spoiler follows!): Our New York private investigator has been hired to infiltrate Mississippi, to get proof that five rednecks have murdered three civil rights workers, and then to execute the rednecks. Our genius p.i. floats on top of an inflatable mattress beneath the swamp-side clubhouse of the rednecks. He has a tape recorder with him. Upon his arrival beneath the clubhouse, the rednecks immediately and spontaneously and unambiguously announce their guilt. They practically get down on their hands and knees and shout their confessions through the chinks in the floor. And then, if that isn't dumb enough, in the novel's final chapter. . . . Sheesh.
February 21, 2016
This book surprised me. Its view of the twisted and complicated nature of racism, of the distorting effect racial hatred has had on the culture of the American South, and of the long trail of injustice and suffering it leaves behind is nuanced and fascinating. (I wish its views of gender were a fraction as nuanced, but maybe that's a bit much to ask of a book published in 1970) Its plot barrels along at a good clip, and its prose is clean and readable. A lost gem, and I'm glad Hard Case Crime has brought it back into view.
November 10, 2020
I loved it! Great and tragic with a good (though not as visceral) Mike Hammer justice angle. I have to get my hands on to some more Shepard Rifkin!
May 31, 2022
The Murderer Vine is among one of the best novels from Hard Case Crime.
December 5, 2024
I've been a fan of the late Shepard Rifkin since I first read 'Murderer Vine' years ago. I recent read it again and enjoyed it just as much the second time around. One thing I love about the story is the way the author sets it up. Our protagonist, Joe Dunne, is wasting away in an unspecified non-extradition Central American country, protected by local officials whom he's paying off with money he keeps locked away in "one of those numbered accounts." We learn these details because Dunne is writing them in a letter to an unnamed priest. So we know Dunne is hiding something and it must have been pretty bad because he can't leave the place - not ever. He apparently has all the money he could ever want, but he's basically trapped in a box and can never enjoy it. The reader is dying to know why - at least I was. The rest of the story enfolds as a flashback, with Dunne telling the priest - as if it were a confession - how he came to be there. I won't spoil the book by saying anything else except that Dunne is hired to impart some very harsh justice because the law failed to do so. The book was written at a time when the topic of race was very much in the news, but the story seems no less relevant today. Those reviewers who thought the plot too predictable miss the point, I think. True, the book is not riddled with plot twists (although there IS a surprise ending), but it's not that kind of book. It's about a private detective who gets talked into a course of action, only to realize - too late - that the price he paid was too high. It is, as are the best hard-boiled detective stories, about a lone detective, the choices he makes, and the things he encounters as he travels those mean streets. For other similar books by this author, check out 'Ladyfingers' and 'McQuaid in August.'
June 24, 2024
𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙜𝙝 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙖 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩. 𝙄 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣’𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙄 𝙫𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙢𝙎𝙥𝙮. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 100% 𝙛𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙄 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣. 𝙄 𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙢𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙜𝙝 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙖 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙎𝙥𝙮. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙤. 𝙢𝙎𝙥𝙮 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙮𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙢𝙮 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙮, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙞’𝙫𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨. 𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙙, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮’𝙧𝙚 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙖𝙝 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝘿𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙄 𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙛. 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙎𝙥𝙮 𝙫𝙞𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙎𝙥𝙮4@𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡.𝙘𝙤𝙢
March 1, 2018
Enjoyed this Noir PI novel set in the deep south. Story revolves around the 3 boys who go missing during the voter registration drive of the late 60's.
Given the beginning where the protagonist (the PI) is hiding out with lots of money somewhere in Central America, the book is plot wise pretty predictable however it done well enough that the reading is worthwhile and a few additional subplots are laid out that keep the story interesting.
This is an original 60's PI Novel that I would recommend for anyone who like myself loves that era. Originally published in 1970 and re released in 2008 by Hard Case Crime.
Given the beginning where the protagonist (the PI) is hiding out with lots of money somewhere in Central America, the book is plot wise pretty predictable however it done well enough that the reading is worthwhile and a few additional subplots are laid out that keep the story interesting.
This is an original 60's PI Novel that I would recommend for anyone who like myself loves that era. Originally published in 1970 and re released in 2008 by Hard Case Crime.
Read
February 11, 2022first published in 1970 a tale about joe dunne a private investigator hired to kill the men responsible for the murder of a man’s son. The first half is great detailing the preparations . The start of the second half explores issues of racism in the south. The final quarter of the book is fast paced and shockingly tragic. Some good hard boiled first person narration. Some very atmospheric depictions of the swamps in Mississippi. Some fun uses of dialect particularly that southern drawl. Plus you can’t help but fall in love with his assistant Kirby
March 4, 2025
“La Liana Matador”. A vine in the Amazon basin that strangles its host tree as it grows to reach the sunshine above.
From NYC to Okalusa to Puerto Lagarto on the old Mosquito Coast. The part in Okalusa is the best, and the first third of the story in New York is the slowest. In Okalusa, the plot revolves around three murders that are very similar to the true-life murders of three Civil Rights Movement activists, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in 1964. The ending wasn't very satisfying, nor did it make a whole lot of logical sense. I'm not even sure why the author framed the whole thing as a 'confession' to a preacher. However, the book did give me a hunger for hush puppies and catfish!
From NYC to Okalusa to Puerto Lagarto on the old Mosquito Coast. The part in Okalusa is the best, and the first third of the story in New York is the slowest. In Okalusa, the plot revolves around three murders that are very similar to the true-life murders of three Civil Rights Movement activists, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in 1964. The ending wasn't very satisfying, nor did it make a whole lot of logical sense. I'm not even sure why the author framed the whole thing as a 'confession' to a preacher. However, the book did give me a hunger for hush puppies and catfish!
April 23, 2023
It's rare that a book makes me miss my subway stop. This one did it twice in the few days it took me to read.
October 6, 2023
2.5 stars. Kind of boring. Too much filler and not enough plot.
March 31, 2025
Interesting enough story but pretty slow and, overall, nothing special.
October 10, 2025
Fantastic story!
July 24, 2016
I finished The Murderer Vine about a week ago. I did not like it at the time, but my feelings toward it have improved a little. Like many vintage pulp crime novels, this one reflects the prevailing attitudes and prejudices of its time. These were glaring, but if you can get past them, the author deserves some credit for crafting two compelling characters and a decent plot.
Set in 1970 and loosely inspired by the real life case of Civil Rights workers murdered in the Deep South (the event that also inspired the movie Mississippi Burning), the novel follows a smarter-than-average PI named Joe Dunne, who is hired by the rich father of one of the dead workers to find the men responsible for the killings, produce evidence of their crimes, and then execute them in revenge. Dunne is not a killer by nature, and he struggles with the ethics of this task, but the money is too great to turn down.
Along for the ride is Dunne’s beautiful young assistant Kirby, a Southern transplant to New York City who understands the culture, who may or may not agree with Dunne’s views on race and class, and who consistently saves Dunne from his own ignorance.
I enjoyed the Dunne character who for the most part acted intelligently and recognized his mistakes, a few of which led to tragic outcomes for other characters. Too often, PI characters stomp around these books oblivious to the damage they wreak on the people around them. Kirby stole the limelight in every one of her scenes with her ingenuity and quick thinking.
The problem with this book was its stereotypical and dishonest portrayal of almost every white Southern character. The author depicted them all as evil, duplicitous, hate-filled bigots who would rather see all African-Americans hanged rather than give them equal rights. Anyone who actually lived in the South, especially during this time period, knows this was not true. Most racism of the period was a sort of casual assumed superiority, a pity and snubbing of black people, rather than outright hatred. It is true, of course, that this attitude is certainly what allowed the more extreme forms of racism to exist and propagate, but I do not believe most Southerners were this bloodthirsty or cruel. (Perhaps the book and movie that dealt most fairly with this sort of racism was The Help.)
The author got everything else wrong too:
There are no large swamps in Northern Mississippi. Nor did the local African-Americans believe in voodoo or African religions. (These plot elements would have been more realistic had the book been set in New Orleans or even parts of East Texas.)
I have lived in the South all my life and I never saw anyone drink iced coffee before Starbucks introduced it. It is still rare, actually.
The black characters in the book all acted like ‘Uncle Toms’ (the author’s words, not mine). This may have been true in earlier periods of history, but not in the late 1960’s. This characterization was rather demeaning.
Finally, my last complaint with the book was the ending. The author was going for the traditional downbeat noir ending, but it took too much faith to believe that one crooked small-town Mississippi politician could have pulled off the frame and set-up required for the novel’s denouement. It did not ring true.
In the end, this entry in the Hard Case Crime series is more interesting as an artifact of its time than as an enjoyable work on its own merit.
Set in 1970 and loosely inspired by the real life case of Civil Rights workers murdered in the Deep South (the event that also inspired the movie Mississippi Burning), the novel follows a smarter-than-average PI named Joe Dunne, who is hired by the rich father of one of the dead workers to find the men responsible for the killings, produce evidence of their crimes, and then execute them in revenge. Dunne is not a killer by nature, and he struggles with the ethics of this task, but the money is too great to turn down.
Along for the ride is Dunne’s beautiful young assistant Kirby, a Southern transplant to New York City who understands the culture, who may or may not agree with Dunne’s views on race and class, and who consistently saves Dunne from his own ignorance.
I enjoyed the Dunne character who for the most part acted intelligently and recognized his mistakes, a few of which led to tragic outcomes for other characters. Too often, PI characters stomp around these books oblivious to the damage they wreak on the people around them. Kirby stole the limelight in every one of her scenes with her ingenuity and quick thinking.
The problem with this book was its stereotypical and dishonest portrayal of almost every white Southern character. The author depicted them all as evil, duplicitous, hate-filled bigots who would rather see all African-Americans hanged rather than give them equal rights. Anyone who actually lived in the South, especially during this time period, knows this was not true. Most racism of the period was a sort of casual assumed superiority, a pity and snubbing of black people, rather than outright hatred. It is true, of course, that this attitude is certainly what allowed the more extreme forms of racism to exist and propagate, but I do not believe most Southerners were this bloodthirsty or cruel. (Perhaps the book and movie that dealt most fairly with this sort of racism was The Help.)
The author got everything else wrong too:
There are no large swamps in Northern Mississippi. Nor did the local African-Americans believe in voodoo or African religions. (These plot elements would have been more realistic had the book been set in New Orleans or even parts of East Texas.)
I have lived in the South all my life and I never saw anyone drink iced coffee before Starbucks introduced it. It is still rare, actually.
The black characters in the book all acted like ‘Uncle Toms’ (the author’s words, not mine). This may have been true in earlier periods of history, but not in the late 1960’s. This characterization was rather demeaning.
Finally, my last complaint with the book was the ending. The author was going for the traditional downbeat noir ending, but it took too much faith to believe that one crooked small-town Mississippi politician could have pulled off the frame and set-up required for the novel’s denouement. It did not ring true.
In the end, this entry in the Hard Case Crime series is more interesting as an artifact of its time than as an enjoyable work on its own merit.
May 1, 2014
As the first novel I've ever read by Shepard Rifkin, I found the The Murderer Vine to be a very compelling read. It's the 43rd installment in the Hard Case Crime series of crime fiction books and it did not disappoint.
Written and set in 1970, the novel takes place mostly in a small Mississippi town as a New York private detective, Joe Dunne, covertly tracks down the murderers of three civil rights workers (specifically, three college students that were crisscrossing the area trying to register black voters). Told in one extended flashback as the private eye relates his story in a mildly drunken, cathartic confession to a priest, the twist on the tale is that Dunne was hired by the father of one of the workers to not only conclusively identity the murderers but to kill them all. The grieving father will handsomely pay him for this service, which Dunne knows will be his very last job before a retirement to a non-extradition country if he succeeds.
Rifkin's writing is both crisp and fluid, and moves along at such a steady pace that one does not have time to dwell on the moral ambiguity the main character in such a revenge/vigilante tale. It is a detective story only in the sense that Dunne uses his sleuthing skills to both build himself a believable cover identity in the small southern town while tracking down the killers. Dunne seems just as motivated by the large payoff he will receive as he does by his sense of meting out justice. What struck me the most about the novel is its (then) very contemporary commentary on race relations and the justice system of the "good ole boy" south, as well as the main character's single-minded determination to complete his goal. Obviously inspired by the actual murders in 1964 which were both both documented and fictionalized in the film Mississippi Burning, The Murderer Vine was a bit startling to me in its unapologetic take (considering it was published so relatively soon after the true-life events just a few years earlier, and in the charged political and racial climate of the time) that the men responsible for the killings deserved the same quick and brutal end as their victims.
All in all I found the book surprising in that it is simultaneously a quick, entertaining, and thought-provoking read. I say "surprising" because it is a credit to Rifkin's writing that he avoids the common pitfall of those three story attributes being mutually exclusive in one combination or other. The attempt to balance (much less attain) them is a failure of many novels whereas the The Murderer Vine happily succeeds in its execution (yes, pun intended, I just couldn't resist).
Written and set in 1970, the novel takes place mostly in a small Mississippi town as a New York private detective, Joe Dunne, covertly tracks down the murderers of three civil rights workers (specifically, three college students that were crisscrossing the area trying to register black voters). Told in one extended flashback as the private eye relates his story in a mildly drunken, cathartic confession to a priest, the twist on the tale is that Dunne was hired by the father of one of the workers to not only conclusively identity the murderers but to kill them all. The grieving father will handsomely pay him for this service, which Dunne knows will be his very last job before a retirement to a non-extradition country if he succeeds.
Rifkin's writing is both crisp and fluid, and moves along at such a steady pace that one does not have time to dwell on the moral ambiguity the main character in such a revenge/vigilante tale. It is a detective story only in the sense that Dunne uses his sleuthing skills to both build himself a believable cover identity in the small southern town while tracking down the killers. Dunne seems just as motivated by the large payoff he will receive as he does by his sense of meting out justice. What struck me the most about the novel is its (then) very contemporary commentary on race relations and the justice system of the "good ole boy" south, as well as the main character's single-minded determination to complete his goal. Obviously inspired by the actual murders in 1964 which were both both documented and fictionalized in the film Mississippi Burning, The Murderer Vine was a bit startling to me in its unapologetic take (considering it was published so relatively soon after the true-life events just a few years earlier, and in the charged political and racial climate of the time) that the men responsible for the killings deserved the same quick and brutal end as their victims.
All in all I found the book surprising in that it is simultaneously a quick, entertaining, and thought-provoking read. I say "surprising" because it is a credit to Rifkin's writing that he avoids the common pitfall of those three story attributes being mutually exclusive in one combination or other. The attempt to balance (much less attain) them is a failure of many novels whereas the The Murderer Vine happily succeeds in its execution (yes, pun intended, I just couldn't resist).
November 30, 2014
From the first few pages, the novel’s dark atmosphere works as a strong hook, drawing you in through the pain-filled narrative of Joe Dunne, a narrative he relates to a passing American missionary who’s stumbled into the Mexican seaside village Dunne has “retired” to. The atmosphere is enhanced not only by Dunne drowning his sorrows on the lam, however; it starts with the back cover blurb about the plot.
Three young college students go missing in Mississippi while working on voter registration, and the father of one of them hires Dunne to find proof of their death, and then to bring back proof of their killers’ are dead. If that’s not a heavy concept I don’t know what is, considering the politically-charged implications of the real event which occurred just a few years previous. (To be fair, this is not as political as you might think; it’s a PI mystery/thriller through and through.) Dunne’s in this one for the big money, planning on retiring in Mexico after he finishes this job, and ends up taking his assistant Kirby with him as part of his cover. The fact Kirby comes from the deep south herself is a strong asset.
The book’s faults lies with its pacing—the mystery works at a snail’s pace, with clever and methodical planning eating up the vast majority of the story. When the action does come, it’s brief, almost anti-climactic, and the “shock ending” mentioned on the back cover is almost cruel in its random arrival. However, the writing is strong—incredibly so. The characterizations and Dunne’s monologue-narrative are brilliant, both tangible and interesting, a pervasiveness which drives the reader on to finish Dunne’s tale.
Rifkin’s writing, through the persona of Dunne, is amazing, drawing the reader in while introducing interesting new characters, something befitting the slower pacing. His attention to detail, and Dunne’s persona, are amazing as he runs through the PI setting up his investigatory plans and backup-plans. In short, while the mystery is thinly hidden, at least Rifkin’s engaging enough to make the drawn-out revelations palatable to the reader.
Full review (and more Hard Case reviews) found here.
Three young college students go missing in Mississippi while working on voter registration, and the father of one of them hires Dunne to find proof of their death, and then to bring back proof of their killers’ are dead. If that’s not a heavy concept I don’t know what is, considering the politically-charged implications of the real event which occurred just a few years previous. (To be fair, this is not as political as you might think; it’s a PI mystery/thriller through and through.) Dunne’s in this one for the big money, planning on retiring in Mexico after he finishes this job, and ends up taking his assistant Kirby with him as part of his cover. The fact Kirby comes from the deep south herself is a strong asset.
The book’s faults lies with its pacing—the mystery works at a snail’s pace, with clever and methodical planning eating up the vast majority of the story. When the action does come, it’s brief, almost anti-climactic, and the “shock ending” mentioned on the back cover is almost cruel in its random arrival. However, the writing is strong—incredibly so. The characterizations and Dunne’s monologue-narrative are brilliant, both tangible and interesting, a pervasiveness which drives the reader on to finish Dunne’s tale.
Rifkin’s writing, through the persona of Dunne, is amazing, drawing the reader in while introducing interesting new characters, something befitting the slower pacing. His attention to detail, and Dunne’s persona, are amazing as he runs through the PI setting up his investigatory plans and backup-plans. In short, while the mystery is thinly hidden, at least Rifkin’s engaging enough to make the drawn-out revelations palatable to the reader.
Full review (and more Hard Case reviews) found here.
June 5, 2008
another novel with narrative drive to spare from Hard Case Crime, this one set in the 60s and featuring killers of civil rights workers as the very fully realized heavies. I didn't like it quite as much as my man Eddie Muller, but it's very good.
Eddie wrote in the SF Chron:
Written in 1970, the book is a raucously amusing - and ultimately stunning - detective-story version of the 1964 Mississippi murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. If only the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning," based on the same case, had been half this good! Rifkin has a special slant on sardonic, sarcastic dialogue, and this book features some of the best palaver in private-eye fiction, delivered by New York P.I. Joe Dunne and a splendid supporting cast, both above and below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Eddie wrote in the SF Chron:
Written in 1970, the book is a raucously amusing - and ultimately stunning - detective-story version of the 1964 Mississippi murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. If only the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning," based on the same case, had been half this good! Rifkin has a special slant on sardonic, sarcastic dialogue, and this book features some of the best palaver in private-eye fiction, delivered by New York P.I. Joe Dunne and a splendid supporting cast, both above and below the Mason-Dixon Line.
October 25, 2016
"In those private-eye novels i had been reading for the last three days, i knew what the hero would do. He would go home, he would get a gun. Or if he couldn't go home, he would get one somewhere. He would bust in & have himself a shoot-out. He would kill them with a few well-placed shots. He would suffer a bullet in the shoulder which would miss the bone. Then there would follow an interview with an angry assistant D.A. The D.A. would warn him to watch his step in the future or he would lose his license. The D.A. would walk out of the hospital room & our hero would lie back & drink some twelve-year-old Bell's, smuggled to him against orders by his beautiful nurse. Fade-out.
But life was different. What i wanted was a lot of distance between me & the D.A."
Another excellent re-issue by Hard Case Crime. Originally published in 1970. Great cover too.
But life was different. What i wanted was a lot of distance between me & the D.A."
Another excellent re-issue by Hard Case Crime. Originally published in 1970. Great cover too.
January 12, 2016
A fairly good entry into the Hardcase series, this novel has enjoyable characters and a dark but simple plot involving the Civil Rights movement in the South, and revenge. The main character is sensible, never over the top, which makes him a dry, intriguing character even as he's chasing after a large amount of money, and eventually being disappointed in all of his hopes.
His assistant is quick, witty, and fun to read about. Her reactions are, at the same time, very real for her position in the novel.
The villains are notably very personable, which again rings as true, as the narrator feels almost bad about acting against them until their underlying racism makes him enraged.
The whole thing together is a good read.
His assistant is quick, witty, and fun to read about. Her reactions are, at the same time, very real for her position in the novel.
The villains are notably very personable, which again rings as true, as the narrator feels almost bad about acting against them until their underlying racism makes him enraged.
The whole thing together is a good read.
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