‘Rhymes with Fool’ is cool - a jewel

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.