Deadstick

Owen Keane Mystery #1

by Terence Faherty

Trying to determine why a previously unquestioned, forty-year-old case has been reopened, introverted law-firm researcher Owen Keane encounters locked archives that force him to resort to the local gossip for answers. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Terence Faherty (1954-) is an American author of mystery novels.

My name is Terence Faherty. I'm a storyteller whose stories most often take the form of mysteries. (A critic once noted, cryptically but correctly, that all my stories are mysteries, even the ones that aren't.) I do see basic storytelling and mystery solving as linked, because in so many stories the protagonist is trying to answer a question or right a wrong. This is why I see the mystery and especially the private eye story as a particularly straightforward form of storytelling: a problem is posed and a hero sets out to resolve it. (At least, it would be straightforward if all clients were forthcoming and truthful.)

I've written two series in book form. The Owen Keane series follows the bumpy life of a failed seminarian turned amateur sleuth (a job title I love). It's been nominated twice for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award and once for the Anthony Award and it's won a Macavity Award from Mystery Readers International. The Scott Elliott series is set in old Hollywood during its decline and fall. Elliott, an operative for a shady security company, tries to slow that decline and fall in his own small way. Elliott has been nominated for three Shamus Awards from the Private Eye Writers of America and taken home two.


* Uncanny: Short story writen by Terence Faherty.

Series:
* Owen Keane Mystery
* Scott Elliott Mystery

Reviews

[Russ Jarvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I met Terence Faherty at a writing conference last summer where he led a workshop. I'm not a mystery reader but after learning that the protagonist is a "failed seminarian" I had to give the first book in this series a turn. I purchased the eBook and read it in my Kindle. I won't attempt to judge it against other books in its genre. What I will do is say that I came to care about Owen Keane. The story started too slowly for me, but I stuck with it and found the pace picking up about half way through. Maybe I'm more used to the faster pace of current thrillers (i.e. Steve Barry, Greg Iles, James Rollins, etc.). Another thing I enjoyed was his description of rural and urban locations in the northeast US.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top notch mystery, with one of my favorite characters--Owen Keane,a failed Catholic seminarian who delves into the secrets of the universe and comes face to face with real life mysteries. The Owen Keane books by Terence Faherty can be read in any order, but there is an added resonance if you read them in the order of publication. "Deadstick" is the first in the Owen Keane series, and it should not be confused with "Dead-Stick" by J.L. Washburn.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Researcher Owen Keane is given the assignment of investigating the crash in 1941 of a private plane carrying a millionaire aviator and his fiancee. Was it an accident or sabotage? Why was the plane headed in the opposite direction from the one planned? Most importantly, why does the victim's brother want to know what happened forty years later? Always seeking more deeply than most investigators, former seminarian Keane will find answers that surprise even those who thought they knew the most.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot was left to the reader's imagination....the reader decides what really happens because Owen's summation of the events surrounding the deaths of William/Robert could have easily been explained several ways. I don't think there was a real ending just a closing with little resolution in my mind.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of my Uncle Terry's mystery novels featuring amateur detective Owen Keane. His books aren't your typical bloody, violent, action mystery books. They're much more subtle and are more for the intellectual reader. Part of the reason I enjoy these books so much is because many of them take place in towns that I know in New Jersey.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not too far into this book but have met the author a few times (and thanks to Jodi had dinner with him)so she gifted me with this first in series. The main character is Owen Keane and he is a research assistant for a lawyer. I'll comment more later when I am finished. :-)

[Paul Criscuolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terry has done a great job introducing Owen Keane to the world. Reread it again and still enjoyed it.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Terence Faherty a little late, from a story published in the January EQMM, and what I loved about his writing, plot, and storyline was that it was different. Like Ezra Pound urged poets and writers a century ago, Faherty has taken the mystery genre and "made it new." I usually "figure out" mysteries before the end, but I was dead wrong on this one. Owen Keane, the protagonist, was wrong too, so that makes me feel a little better. It was not until the final few chapters that Keane has the epiphany that [seems to] solve the mystery, and while he was slow to get there, the process wasn't annoying in the least because the story was so well constructed. (Well, all mysteries are solved in the final few chapters, but it was Keane's thinking activity and self-doubt that made his deduction process seem much more laborious than, say, Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.

Faherty seems to have mastered character development as well as writing mysteries in a new way, because our protagonist is likeable even though he's a pain, and he's relatable because in his first-person narration, he is fairly self-aware even though he claims not to be. (He has more of a delayed self-awareness, which is all too human!)

Smart writer and a great architect of a story. I'll definitely add more Terence Faherty novels to my list. I dropped everything and finished this one in a day.

[Cary Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Deadstick is the first in the Owen Keane mysteries, it was my second read in the series. I discovered Faherty's work when I searched through several shelves of discounted books, and I've not regretted it. So far, these mysteries are understated (I've read 4) and a quick read. More than one story were based on his own past. It's almost impossible not to like Keane, his caring for people, and a near compulsion to help. Give him a mystery and he can't stop himself from wanting to solve it.

These are twisted tales of human fallibility gone awry, even his own. He loved, lost, went to seminary, left, and still tries to find what he wants to be when he grows up. Meanwhile, being an amateur sleuth will have to do.

The books are quick reads, yet fascinating mysteries.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This first Owen Keane mystery follows the legal researcher and ex-seminarian as he tries to find answers to a 40-yar-old mystery. A wealthy recluse sends Owen on a trail through his own “mean streets, the New York Public Library” and into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.
This was an only okay story, a little too many introspective musings and a vague and absolving ending. My favorite part was the (very brief) description of the amateur detective’s 1965 Karmann-Ghia.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: life is quiet for Owen Keane, failed seminarian, until a cryptic request for information on a fatal accident crosses his desk.