Monument

by Howard Owen, Judith Shepard (Editor)

Richmond is shut down and masked up amid the COVID pandemic. Then, Black Lives Matter outrage evolves into an attack on the Confederate monuments that have long been despised by much of the city population. What else could happen? Willie Black, night police reporter for the local daily, knows there’s always something. On the first night of what will turn out to be a season of reckoning in the former capital of the Confederacy, cops investigating an unlocked door on a riot-ravaged stretch of Broad Street find something they didn't expect. A husband and wife who own a second-hand bookstore have been brutally murdered. Is it an offshoot of the rage that sprung up unexpectedly in the city that one veteran observer was fond of referring to as a hotbed of rest? It doesn't take long for the police to find an obvious prime suspect––a mildly autistic college student who had been befriended by the couple and who was caught by a video camera coming out of the bookstore not long after the murders occurred. Willie has more than the usual interest in the case, since the suspect is the son of the first of three ex-wives, who made a new life with a new husband after Willie split. As he digs deeper than Chief L.D. Jones and his police force would like, he soon has reason to doubt that the real killer is behind bars. The police have their hands full putting out literal and figurative fires and have little interest in pursuing a case they believe is already solved. Willie, though, has time (albeit his own, unpaid time as print journalism continues to circle the drain). Before he's through, he'll discover a story of a tragic mistake and the vengeance it spawned, vengeance that spills over into a city that’s already maxed out on trouble.

Genres: Mystery

261 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2021

About the author

Howard Owen was born March 1, 1949, in Fayetteville, N.C. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1971, journalism) and has a master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University (1981, English).
He and his wife since 1973, Karen Van Neste Owen (the former publisher of Van Neste Books), live in Richmond, Va. He was a newspaper reporter and editor for 44 years.
Owen won The Dashiell Hammett Prize for crime literature in the United States and Canada for Oregon Hill, his 10th novel.
His first novel, "Littlejohn," was written in 1989, when he was 40. It was bought by The Permanent Press and published in 1992. Random House bought it from The Permanent Press and reissued it as a Villard hardcover in 1993 and a Vintage Contemporary paperback in 1994. It was nominated for the Abbey Award (American Booksellers) and Discovery (Barnes & Noble) award for best new fiction. It has sold, in all, more than 50,000 copies. It has been printed in Japanese, French and Korean; it has been a Doubleday Book Club selection; audio and large-print editions have been issued, and movie option rights have been sold.
His second novel, "Fat Lightning," came out as a Permanent Press book in 1994. It was bought by HarperCollins and was reissued as a Harper Perennial paperback in 1996. It received a starred review from Publishers' Weekly.
His third novel, "Answers to Lucky," was published by HarperCollins as a hardcover in 1996 and as a paperback in 1997. It received favorable reviews in The New York Times, Southern Living, GW, Publishers' Weekly, the Atlanta Constitution, the Baltimore Sun, the Memphis Commercial Appeal and numerous other publications. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
His fourth novel, "The Measured Man," was published in hardcover by HarperCollins in 1997. It was praised in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Publishers' Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Orlando Sentinel, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and many other publications. It was one of the LA Times Book Reviews’ "Recommended Titles" for 1997. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
Owen's fifth novel, "Harry and Ruth," was published by The Permanent Press in September of 2000 to critical acclaim from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and various weekly publications.
His sixth novel, "The Rail," was published in April of 2002. It is about (among other things) baseball and the parable of the talents. Owen won the 2002 Theresa Pollack Award for Words.
His seventh novel, "Turn Signal," was about a man whose muse drives him either to madness or to the best move he's ever made in his life. It came out in 2004 and was a Booksense selection for July of 2004.
His eighth novel, "Rock of Ages," is something of a sequel to his first novel, "Littlejohn." Georgia McCain returns to her hometown years after her father’s death to sell the family farm and finds herself immersed in baby-boomer guilt and a murder mystery. It was a Booksense pick for July of 2006.

His ninth novel, "The Reckoning," about ghosts of the ’60s, came out in late 2010 and received very positive reviews from, among others, Publishers Weekly and the New York Journal of Books.
His short story, "The Thirteenth Floor," part of "Richmond Noir," came out in early 2010.
The protagonist of “The Thirteenth Floor,” Willie Black, also is at the center of Owen’s 10th novel, “Oregon Hill,” which came in July of 2012 to very positive reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and elsewhere. It's also an audio book.

Willie starred in future Owen novels: The Philadelphia Quarry (2013), Parker Field (2014), The Bottom (2015), Grace (2016) and The Devil's Triangle (2017). His 16th novel, Annie's Bones, comes out in April of 2018.

Reviews

[Kevintipple · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is May 2020 as Monument: Willie Black Mystery Series by Howard Owen begins and just a few days after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody occurred in Minneapolis. There have been Black Lives Matter protests all across the county and that includes Richmond, Virginia, where reporter Willie Black has been on the story. A story that is expanding as the protests become increasingly violent.

A story that soon changes and becomes far more personal with the discovery of two bodies in an apartment over a nearby bookstore. There had been protests in the area and there had been vandalism and damage. Checking out the situation as the door of a used bookstore stored open, officers checked the bookstore on the ground floor, and went upstairs. On the second floor, those two officers soon found a woman and a man tied to chairs in the living room. Both were bound and gagged and each had been shot in the chest and head. As they checked the rest of the apartment, they found a baby alive and unharmed in her crib.

The deceased are soon identified as William and Susan Keller, both of whom were in their early thirties. While they do not have a motive, the local cops quickly have an identified suspect. Adam Walker, the son of Willie Black’s first wife, Jeanette. Willie Black is not be the boy’s biological father, but he was Jeanette’s first husband, so that means a lot. That personal angle means that he has access to information that others do not have as the days pass and the investigation moves forward. It also puts him in the crosshairs of at least one person who determined to shut up the pesky reporter once and for all.

Monument is the latest in the long running Willie Black mysteries. This latest one is set against the backdrop of the BLM protest, the Covid pandemic, and various societal issues that have been at the forefront of the news these past months. Intense and powerful, the book also spins a mighty good mystery read. Strongly recommended by myself as well as Publishers Weekly which gave it a starred review.


Monument: Willie Black Mystery Series
Howard Owen
http://www.howardowenbooks.com
The Permanent Press
https://thepermanentpress.com/product...
November 2021
ISBN# 978-1579626471
Hardback
232 Pages




I received a PDF of the book from the publisher with no expectation of a review.



Kevin R. Tipple ©2021

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just discovered this author when I saw this cover. His characters are well developed and interesting and the story line is good. What puts it from a 3 to a 4 for me, other than the very accurate grounding in recent events, is how richly Richmond it is. Living in Richmond as I do, it felt like reading the local news! I will look for more in this series.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Local Richmond writer, former news man, takes his Willie Black character, who’s a struggling newsman, writing for the dried up newspaper into the summer of 2020 - post George Floyd’s killing, mid-Covid shiut down, when Richmond was rioting over injustice and focused on tearing down the confederate monuments.
So much of the book is accurate to what happened that it was a little dejavu and last night at work, for a moment I thought the protests at the police station were happening just outside, only to remember, nope just reading. Added into the very real descriptions, are the murders of a couple who run a bookstore, and a young autistic man who the police think did the deed. Willie Black is doing his own investigation and gets caught up in the middle of it all, as he does. Quite a good quick read.

[Richard Pulfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Monument" is a stirring mystery set in the Richmond amid BLM protests to remove Confederate statues and an ongoing COVID-19 lockdown. It's certainly ripped from the headlines, but the book never pauses to feel preachy or didactic, instead of focusing more exclusively on reporter Willie Black's attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding his ex-wife's son. This clear focus keeps the novel engaging and afloat through the sum of its parts, all leading to a pretty brutal conclusion. One minor complaint: this is my first Willie Black mystery and I didn't feel it did a great job establishing some of the chief characters, outside of Black and few others, but that's mostly on me for starting to late into the series.

[Al Beard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willie Black and his nosy reporter self to the rescue.

Behind on my Willie Black reading, but this one was worth the wait. Owen again draws on real life experience and brings these fictional characters to life, while paying homage to different places he has lived and worked in real life. Willie again defies the odds of growing old, putting himself in more dangerous situations in the name of journalism. Not giving away the story, but the multiple storylines kept me from putting this down . Looking forward to #12 when it becomes available on the Kindle. Will would be disappointed I don't read hard copies.......only digital.

[Mike Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bias warning, which I post every time I read one of Howard's books: He's a friend and my former boss.

And, as I also post every time: I love this series. This most-recent installment may be the best. Read the Willie Black series if you haven't already done so.

[Lawrence Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

The parts of Richmond mentioned were mostly familiar. The pace was very rapid and the story. Full of twists and turns.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the references to RVA and appreciated current events.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book in the Willie Black series. It was quite good!

[nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great mystery set in Richmond va during Covid and the.monument take down.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Willie Black mystery is always a treat, but readers don’t need to have read the previous ones to enjoy this enthrallingly up-to-date novel of inner city America, where old newspapers, honest civilities, and beloved monuments are set to die.

Of course, not all monuments are loved by all people, as Black Lives Matter reminded us, and as author Howard Owen gently reminds his readers through the eyes of his protagonist. Things fall apart in what was meant to be an everyday protest, and a watcher comments that people just get tired--"tired of asking politely... tired of knocking at that same old door...." But are the deaths of a bookseller and his wife really part of the protest? And is the easy target arrested by police really the killer?

Willie Black knows people on all sides of law, age, and race, through newspaper connections, family commitments, and friends. He also knows how to find things out, and his reporter’s desire to understand what happened and save the innocent soon becomes a mission that threatens life and limb. But Willie’s a survivor, and his present wife is a reluctant star.

Told in the thoroughly convincing voice of the likeable and fierce Willie Black, this novel brings Richmond’s monuments and riots to life. A statue painted and scorned makes a fine backdrop to disfigured lives and disregarded truths. And Monument is a novel with heart, filled with meaning and tension, and blessed with a fast-moving, thoroughly enticing plot. It's exciting, tragic, and surprising, just like the year it's set in. A great addition to the collection.

Disclosure: I was given a preview edition and I offer my honest review.