Book Review: Murder on a Stick by S.L. Smith
It is 2013, and the Minnesota State Fair is crowded with thousands of people eating food on sticks. Usually the worst that could happen is a case of indigestion. But today, someone has put one of the sticks to a more sinister use–murder! Virginia Green is found dying in a fair parking lot, impaled on a food stick. Despite the crowds, no one seems to have seen what happened, so it’s up to St. Paul police detective Pete Culnane and his partner Martin Tierney to solve the case.
This is the third Pete Culnane novel; I haven’t read the others, but picked this one up because of the blatant Minnesota connection. I’ve been to the fairgrounds many times, often during the State Fair itself, so the setting is familiar and I easily understood the geography.
The story is a police procedural, with our detectives interviewing witnesses, doing legwork, checking in with the various departments that handle forensics, automobile tracing, and other special investigation, sorting through piles of paper, and generally following procedures. It’s soon discovered that Ms. Green, while generally liked, had recently quarreled with some relatives, and clashed with a few of her co-workers. And maybe one of her friends had a secret tiff with her? Some of the suspects are lying about whether they were at the Fair and when, which may be relevant.
In subplots, Martin’s wife has been out of sorts since the birth of their child, and Pete is worried about his grandmother having to move into a smaller place. The latter has echoes in the case, as Ms. Green had moved her aging mother into an elder care facility where the woman had failed to thrive, and Pete wants to make sure that isn’t what happens to his grandmother.
The writing is decent, and flowed well. I was able to follow the plot, and did not figure out the mystery too quickly, but the solution made sense and there was a bit of tension towards the end.
Other than the local color, though, this book’s a bit bland and never gripped me. A bit more could have been done with the Fair setting, even if this would have meant a somewhat more cinematic than realistic ending.
Overall, most recommended to Minnesotans looking for local interest mysteries.
