Traces

by Carl Brookins

Marjorie Kane, retired exotic dancer, hooks up with retired Alan Lockem, a former Army Intelligence officer. She has computer skills and human evaluation skills beyond Lockem's. Together they make a formidable though unlicensed duo of investigators. Their primary interest is helping solve dangerous puzzles for citizens of Minnesota. Their advancing ages precludes much physical action although both are proficient with small arms. In this crime novel the team of Lockem and Kane respond to a request from British colleague to retrieve a flash drive. The courier is murdered in front of Lockem at the same time an intruder leaves a CD in the couple's home. More intrigue follows and the couple is entangled with the discovery of an international terrorist and involvement with multiple law enforcement agencies in their effort to find the missing flash drive and sort out who has them under surveillance, and who is trying to kill them.

196 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2020

About the author

Before I became a mystery writer and reviewer, I was a television program producer, a counselor and faculty member at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul and a mystery fiction reviewer for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press and Mystery Scene Magazine. I'm an avid recreational sailor (hence my sailing series and a member of Sisters in Crime, and Private Eye Writers of America, as well as MWA. You can frequently find me touring bookstores and libraries with my companions-in-crime, The Minnesota Crime Wave. You can also catch me on tv! Just check out the Minnesota Crime Wave website, www.MinnesotaCrimeWave.org.

I live with my wife Jean, a retired publisher and editor, in Roseville, Minnesota.

Reviews

[Lelia Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I met Marjorie Kane and Alan Lockem in their first adventure (see my 2018 review of Grand Lac), I was really drawn to this couple who are so unique and, yet, so very normal. Marjorie, in particular, naturally attracts a reader’s attention merely by her past as an exotic dancer but the point of this duo is that, like many people, they’ve reinvented themselves in their later years and they’ve done so successfully and with panache, not to mention taking much pleasure in their new lives as private investigators of a sort.

This time, Lockem and Kane set out on what should have been a fairly uneventful job but turns out to be their own personal spy thriller. Who could have guessed that Minnesota could be a hotbed of international intrigue and military secrets along with some serious danger for our investigators, these people who could be any happy, comfortable couple in any middle class neighborhood?

This is where backgrounds and life experiences come into play and Lockem and Kane prove themselves to be resilient and up to the task at hand. These are intelligent people with more than a little street smarts and that’s why I like them so much, along with a hefty dose of just plain likeability. Mr. Brookins has crafted a story full of interesting twists and a pair of protagonists I hope will be back with many more adventures :-)

[John Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traces is amalgam of many things I look for in a mystery. In the hand of a lesser writer, this mixing might be confusing, but Brookins weaves many threads and styles into a fine, unique story. There’s a bite of private investigator noir, a slice of Agatha Christie, a nice helping of computer technology, all served up with the visual flair Brookins learned during years in video production.
Alan Lockem brings the experience of Army intelligence to the team, and Marjorie Kane (known as Kandy back when she was a stripper) brings technical expertise, cool insight, and, well, class to the duo.
How refreshing to have a male-female team of a certain age taking down an international cabal operating out of their own neighborhood, living in a Minnesota rambler. Lockem and Kane drive a freakin’ Honda CRV. All so not James Bond. All so boring, right? Dead wrong. Instead of flash-bang, multiple dead bodies, derring-do, we get sucked into the careful accretion of evidence and possibilities, a web of intersecting plot points and motives.
All in all, a fine read.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was an interesting premise - part James Bond, part Sam Spade - it suffered from too little in some places, and not enough in others.
I liked the main characters, our nearly octogenarian hero and his lady friend (yes, that's just about the right tone to take), and I liked the idea of his experience lending itself to freelance capers in his retirement.
However, between all the business of the security company, and the grocery shopping, and dinner menus, as well as some anachronistic issues (a BBQ in Minnesota in November? With seating both inside and out, leaving the door open in between? How do you make that an annual thing?), and some pacing issues, I was left underwhelmed.
I did like the flashes of action, the intrigue of working with local law enforcement and the FBI, and spunky Marjorie. I just wish it had been tighter, with more exposition in some places, and the action drawn out more, and a less smug main character.