The Body in the Record Room: A Mystery

by Joe Barone

It’s 1954. When a mental patient who calls himself Roy Rogers finds a body in the hospital record room, his investigation leads him to the murder of Marcia Weinhart. Twenty years earlier, authorities found her mutilated corpse lying on the altar of St. Adrian's Catholic Church in Sunrise, Missouri. Roy, his friend Harry, and Harry’s beloved dog, Bullet, move through the buildings and grounds of the Sunrise Mental Hospital, a thousand-acre facility with more than two thousand patients and eight hundred employees. They go from the record room to the hospital’s Catholic chapel, from the blacksmith shop to the hospital cemetery, looking for victims of the terrible abuse behind the Weinhart murder. In the process, Roy comes to better understand the strength and moral stature of his hero, the real Roy Rogers. He is able to overcome the terror of his past, choosing to forgo violence and work within the law. Joe Barone’s debut makes for an intriguing mystery while also elevating old-time heroes and their values.

Genres: Mystery Thriller, Mystery, Historical Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2008

About the author

Most middle-class people take their babies home to real houses. At his birth, Joe Barone was taken from the local city hospital to an apartment in the huge center building of Nevada, Missouri, State Hospital # 3. His father was a medical doctor there.

Joe was raised in a house on the grounds of that hospital where his father was the Superintendent. He spent most of his adult life as a high school teacher and then an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He is now retired.

For full information about Joe's new mystery book THE BODY IN THE RECORD ROOM click on the web site listed above.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man in a mental institution is a big fan of movie cowboy Roy Rogers, and tries to model his life after the silver screen hero. When a body is found in the record room, he tries to find out who the victim is, and who killed them.

The mystery is alright. The book is really about the need to bring back institutions to deal with the homeless and the mentally ill. Like the saying goes, the abuses of today are all to often the reforms of yesterday.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a real wake-up call after the more mundate mysteries I've been ploughing through. It is reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night Time in that the protagonist does not have the same mentation as the reader. In this book, the narrator is a man confined to a state mental institution because he has delusional episodes. One night, he finds the body of a man. He and a friend hide the body, but then try to find out how the man died; in doing so, they uncover the secrets of many townspeople and inmates, including another murder many years ago.

The very short chapter structure works well. The prose is good and the characters are very well written -- they may be crazy but they aren't stupid. The author grew up on the grounds of a Missouri state mental hospital. Perhaps the book resonated more for me since I grew up in the town where one of Iowa's mental institutions is located, as did my mother and her father... I have my mother's diary, describing living on the hospital grounds while her mother was principal at the school there. She talked about the "farm hands" that watched over her and her friends as they played on the grounds, mostly men that she later learned were convicted murderers.

Definitely a book that is worth reading!

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a first novel and certainly a unique here. The novel is set in a mental institution in 1954 where the hero has been committed for committing hate crimes, beating up homosexuals. Instead of continuing on this path, he chooses to emulate Roy Rogers, his on-screen hero. When he finds the body of a dead priest in the record room he sets out to solve the crime. It was pretty well done and portrayed mentally unstable people in a fair light. Particularly important was the portrayal of the manager of Sunrise who was depicted as caring towards his charges. Worth a read.

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good mystery- lots of twists and turns- and the interesting thing about it was that it takes place in a mental hospital in the 1950s. It was written by a man who was the son of a doctor at such a hospital and lived there. So it was almost historical fiction too. I enjoyed it and a look at something we don't usually see.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kinda a lame mystery.

The premise was interesting--a crazy man comes across a mystery and solves it from inside the mental facility. But there was too much repeating and not enough jucy info.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by this book. It was a murder mystery but with a message. I am intrigued by the background of the author, a retired minister, whose regard for organized religion was definitely put to the test in this book.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can get past the reason for the murders in this book and look at the characters - its okay.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. A mystery set in a mental institution in the 50s - no suspense, a real good mystery. Feels old.

[Jeanne Kornegay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good easy read book. The author gives you a good idea of what it was like to live in a mental hospital back in the mid 1950's.

[Marjorie French · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author's Note: "This novel is set in a state mental hospital in the 1950's. That institution is similar to, but not the same as, the one where I grew up. There were thousands of them across the United States in the 1950's. All the events and people in the story come from my imagination and are not real."
(The author's father was a medical doctor who was the longtime superintendent of the Nevada, Missouri, State Hospital #3.)

Editor's Note: "When my unmarried, childless great-uncle passed away at the age of ninety-four in 1996, I found this manuscript among his belongings. It was written in his strong, looping, spidery handwriting. For a long time, I struggled with what I should do with it. Now, for what it's worth, here it is."
A most unusual book given the setting. Solving the recent murder of a Priest, helps to solve the twenty year old murder of a woman. The main character, a patient, calls himself Roy Rogers. He is a great fan and "admires the moral stature of his hero..."
Closing these institutions was a tragedy, given that it led to the homeless problem we have today. But lessons have not been learned by any administration since, so I doubt they ever will.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a quick but compelling read set in the 1950s in a Missouri state mental institution of a sort that does't exist anymore. Our detective and hero is a mental patient there who thinks he's Roy Rogers who discovers a body in the records room of the institution. Trying to be a "good guy" in the Roy Rogers tradition, he sets out with his sidekick Harry, a Forrest Gump-like character, to solve the murder mystery. Along the way we met lots of interesting characters, some committed to the institution, some who work there, and some who live in the nearby small town where the original crimes (child rape) that triggered the murder Roy is investigating occurred in the 1930s. In addition to a really good mystery story, we get a tour of an old fashioned state institution and its inmates, the nearby small town that has such strong connections to it, and a heartfelt treatise on the mentally ill in our society and how much we choose to ignore them as a culture - all skillfully woven into the plot. The story is written in a style that reminds me of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" by Mark Haddon. If you liked that novel (and I did) you will very likely enjoy this one too.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barone won a contest sponsored by St. Martin/Minotaur to publish this book, a mystery narrated by an inmate of a mental hospital. The voice of the narrator was absolutely winning, despite his situation. Fun read.

[Jane Cornett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Story told in the voice of a crazy person... reads like it was written by one.

[Allen Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot better than I had thought or hoped. Written by a pastor, who growing up had lots of experience with mentally ill patients. it was very entertaining & funny!