Samedi's Knapsack: A Mitch Roberts Mystery

Mitch Roberts Crime Novel #1

by Gaylord Dold

After a long stay abroad and a love affair that fell apart, Mitch Roberts is headed home. Back to his ranch, his horses, and maybe - or maybe not - to being a private eye again. But if Roberts is looking forward to an uneventful life, he has farther to go than a return to southern Colorado. His problems start when a beautiful airline flight attendant suggests he meet her for a drink at her favorite bar in a stopover in Miami. The bar's parking lot, however, comes equipped with two thugs who knock Mitch out, take his passport, credit cards, and every cent in his pocket, and drive off in his rental car.
Desperate, Mitch calls the only person he knows in Miami - a former college acquaintance. Bobby Hilliard, a rather sleazy character who has made a lot of money in questionable ways, and is now an art dealer. When Mitch finds the seductive flight attendant at the man's mansion, he is quick to realize he has been set up. But an offer of a sorely needed big fee tempts him, and he accepts a job. Hilliard's agent, sent to Haiti with money to buy a large number of paintings, has disappeared. Mitch's mission: find the agent and buy paintings to replace those that are lost.
Haiti is dismaying. The police and officials openly scoff at Mitch and, more subtly, let him know that he should stop nosing around. He is also sickened by the tropical heat and humidity and by the poverty and fear that is everywhere. The atmosphere of Haiti's dark folklore pervades daily life - the frightening Baron Samedi is a very real presence.
Mitch is convinced that Hilliard's agent has been murdered and the art stolen, but he is driven to go on, as much for a feeling deep inside that the quest has some meaning for him as to earn his fee. With a Haitian guide, a poor but educated and desperately loyal man, Mitch travels the country tracking down the painters of the missing art in remote towns and buying more of their work.

Genres: Mystery

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Gaylord Dold was born in Kansas and raised in southern California during the good old days. He was educated at the University of Kansas, the University of California, and the London School of Economics, where he took an advanced degree in international law. Before becoming a professional writer, he worked as a chauffeur, theater usher, legal services attorney, law professor and volunteer mentor. He is the co-founder and managing editor of Watermark Press which published works like Leaving Las Vegas by John O’Brien, which later became a film directed by Mike Figgis, starring Nicolas Cage and Elizabeth Shue. Dold has published eighteen novels and five travel guides. Many of his crime novels have received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal and Booklist; many have been praised by Marilyn Stasio and others in the New York Times Book Review and in newspapers like the Portland Oregonian, The Washington Post and Boston Herald. His novel Schedule Two was picked as the best crime novel of 1996 by the Portland Oregonian, while his legal thriller The Devil to Pay was picked as one the best ten crime novels of 1998. His novels have been published in Japan, England, and Brazil. Dold has read his work throughout the United States and has conducted numerous writing workshops. He published The Last Man in Berlin in 2004, a novel set in pre-Nazi Germany during the early 1930s. Most recently he has completed and published three contemporary crime novels, two featuring ex-Marine Jack Kilgore, and one a dystopian science fiction thriller called The Swarming Stage.
After twenty-five years of non-stop work, Dold has, since 2006, taken time off to travel and write five books, including novels, a memoir, and a YA that takes place in Wyoming. At present he continues researching non-fiction books about fly fishing on the old Mountain Man rendezvous sites and along the Continental Divide, writing science fiction, and is busy on a new fiction suspense novel about dream research
These days, Dold is at home on the southern prairie. He is an adept fly fisherman, an ardent gardener and an amateur pianist and guitarist. He rides horses poorly and loves dogs. He continues to travel widely in the Caribbean, the south Pacific and the western Rockies.

Visit the author at gaylorddold.com

Reviews

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mitch Roberts books are interesting. The first half dozen or so of the p.i. series were set in rural Missouri (itself interesting as a choice). Then they switched ("A Penny for the Old Guy") to the present. That's not unknown. The early Spenser books have him fighting in the Korean War, for instance, which clearly isn't possible later in the series. Whatever the time setting, Roberts is interesting. The later novels also have international settings or aspects, especially the Caribbean.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samedi's Knapsack had a pretty good plot. Dold is a wonderfully descriptive writer. I could easily envision what Mitch Roberts experienced in Miami, Haiti, and in the Keys, all of the sights, sounds, and scents. The book is divided into very short chapters, which made it easy to find stopping points.....but also meant I didn't get through it as quickly as some others. I wouldn't call this book a thriller, but it was very engaging none the less.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept trying to like this one - a mystery set in Florida and Haiti, with lots of Haitian proverbs randomly thrown in the dialogue in Creole. But somehow, I didn't really like it. Plus, the synopsis on the jacket cover was wrong - it had lots of inconsistencies with the real story that would have completely screwed up the plot.

[Vincent]

Dold's book provides an interesting look at Haiti for anyone interested in customs and culture in the post-Duvalier era.
The mystery seems almost secondary to his descriptions.
I received the book through a Goodreads lottery and reading it has prompted me to seek out at least one other book by Dold to compare and contrast. His use of word pictures is compelling.