Bill
Knight column for 4-1, 2 or 3, 2019
Having read “Rhymes with Fool,” I’m
filled with regret.
I regret I hadn’t gotten around to
it for months after I bought it, and
that the delightful detective yarn ended so swiftly – too soon!
One of the best books I’ve read in a
while, author Jim Courter’s first novel unfortunately languished in my “trial
pile,” an imposing stack now including Stephen Hawking’s “Brief Answers to the
Big Questions,” two novels from the stellar James Lee Burke, “City Lights
Pocket Poets Anthology,” “One Person, No Vote,” “Francis: The People’s Pope,” the
New York Times obituary collection titled “The Last Word,” “Ron Santo: A
Perfect 10,” Leif Enger’s “Virgil Wander,” Pete Hamill’s “Tabloid City,” Robert
Ludlum’s comic “Road to Omaha,” Ellery Sedgwick’s 1946 memoir “The Happy
Profession,” Bill Fletcher’s “The Man Who Fell from the Sky,” and Bernie
Sanders’ “Where Do We Go from Here?”
Summer afternoons reading in my
gazebo, that’s where.
Meanwhile, I’m tempted to re-read
“Rhymes with Fool,” it was so enjoyable.
Written by a former colleague at
Western Illinois University – a nominee for a Pushcart Prize – the 200-page
paperback follows Milwaukee private investigator and ex-newspaperman Barry
Pool, who’s approached to find the missing 21-year-old son of an ambitious
conservative U.S. Senator.
Initially reluctant, if not suspicious,
Pool is tempted by the offered fee and gradually discovers a deadly neo-Nazi
plot, and he’s sucked into a volatile, violent blend of white supremacy,
political manipulation, and simmering conflicts between police and African
Americans. There, people are protesting police violence, with some demonstrators
and organizers who are manipulative and competitive media figures, local and
national.
Against that expansive backdrop are
individual deaths and worse: a seeming threat of mass murder.
Balancing between a familiar formula
and fresh, unpredictable turns, the book embraces the rhythm and traits of
crime novels but avoids being another cookie-cutter tale.
Like the best p.i. yarns, “Rhymes”
followed a protagonist with a personal code of honor in a threatening time and
place, despite doubt and fear using a conscience as a shield or compass.
Similar to Michael Connelly’s Jack
McEvoy in “The Poet” and “The Scarecrow,” Spenser in the late Robert B. Parker
and Ace Atkins’ series, or even Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in classic novels
and stories, Pool is a pragmatic sleuth, though with weaknesses, which he seems
to try to address through personal discernment and reconciliation through his
faith’s traditions. He’s a loner but not exactly lonely – he has friends,
colleagues and resource people.
Pool and the rest of Courter’s
characters are full-bodied and recognizable. Besides Right-wing thugs who are
more than one-dimensional or stereotypes, there are two strong women (a
newsroom friend and a neighbor of the missing college student), plus a former
captive of the racist group and good cops.
Methodically tracking the trail to
rough hate mongers linked to a plutocratic family operating in a remote wooded
compound, Pool struggles with confusion, uncertainties and uncooperative, even
secretive, clients.
Set in the Midwest, from Milwaukee
to the rural Upper Peninsula, “Rhymes” concedes a deteriorating culture, one of
dangers and dismal, maybe unavoidable outcomes; hate crimes and hate groups –
hate thoughts – virtually slap Pool
with the realization of a fallen world still inhabited, or overrun, by a species
– his species, our species – called
to love one another.
Through that, Pool pursues the case
and also the Mystery coping with morality and faith, flaws and a redemption
that may be reachable, with effort.
The climax and closing moments are at
once thoughtful and disturbing, as morality and conscience collide with justice
and revenge.
Overall, “Rhymes” is believable and
satisfying, and even procrastinating readers like me can hope for nothing more.
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