CUTDOWN

by John A. Miller

In the wake of a radical environmental lawyer's murder, attorney Claude McCutcheon wonders why the only witness claims that he, Claude, is representing him, and becomes involved in an old sheriff's long-buried obsession. Tour.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

My art career began on something of a down note when I was informed by a 5th grade art teacher that, in her considered opinion, I couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler (this was back in the day before the concept of self-esteem had blossomed like a flower—or a weed, depending upon your point of view—in the barren fields of primary school pedagogy). Many years were to pass before I realized that art consists of very few straight lines. Thus liberated I threw away my extensive collection of rulers and embarked on a voyage of artistic discovery that continues to this day.

The development of my writing career followed a somewhat different path. After a rather varied business career (a few hits, a few runs, a few errors) I decided, pretty much out of the blue, to become a writer. When confronted with the dismay of trusted associates (most of whom were reasonably certain that I had lost my mind) I took comfort in the knowledge that even if I still couldn't draw straight lines I had always been able to write a reasonably coherent sentence (a heartfelt thank you here to all my junior and high school English teachers who accepted no excuses when it came to learning the basic rules of grammar). What I knew about the craft of creative writing could have easily fit in a very small box, but I optimistically (some said foolishly) persevered, and, to some degree serendipitously, one good thing led to another. My first collection of short stories, Jackson Street and Other Soldier Stories won the California Book Award for First Fiction, and is now available as an eBook download at Amazon (Kindle), Apple (iBooks), and Barnes & Noble (Nook). My first two mystery/suspense novels, Cutdown and Causes of Action, were published by Pocket Books. My third and fourth novels, Tropical Heat and Coyote Moon were published by Forge (Tropical Heat is now available as a Kindle download from Amazon). My newest novel, The Power of Stones, has just been published as an eBook and is now available for download at Amazon. My short fiction has appeared in, among others, The William & Mary Review, Crosscurrents, The Missouri Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

The cat's name, by the way, is Della, after Della Street, who was introduced in Erle Stanley Gardner's first Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws, published in 1933.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neither fish nor fowl, this book isn't really a mystery, or a crime novel, or an adventure.

Claude McCutcheon is a lawyer with plenty of money despite never working. He gets sucked into a plot when a left wing lawyer is murdered. A client of the victim steals some incriminating documents, then tells everybody that Claude is his lawyer. Several groups of people want this MacGuffin, and flail about. There's also a subplot about a German POW escaping prison and making his way through the US, a romance, another subplot about drug dealer trying to turn the daughter of one of Claude's ex-girlfriends, and a whole lot of regrets from claude about his life.

Readable but strange, and probably not for everybody.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character is kind of an anti-hero; the story is pretty good.