|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Kickapoo Falls, Wisconsin, 1962. Frank Prager is killed by a single shot to the head as he sticks his head out of the window of his steam locomotive. A few days later, his wife, Lisa, is also murdered, but this time with a bullet to the abdomen as she stripped in front of her bedroom window. Sheriff J.D. Zimmer, appointed by the Kickapoo Gunn Club, a group of White Protestant Republican Males who run the town, to fill the term of the last sheriff, who was killed a few months before, is a mysterious character. He appoints deputy Pennington to deal with the murders. Pennington and Zimmer are both going to run for Sheriff in a few months. Pennington is a local, but he had been a sniper for the Rangers during the war and he is a Catholic, so he is suspect every time something unusual happens in Kickapoo Falls. The story goes back and forth. To WW II, Austria, where Pennington has been parachuted into a pass to try and spike a big gun that has been preventing the allies from destroying the main railroad rout out of Germany; to Kickapoo Falls where a group of German POWs have been placed in a camp; to the occurrences of 1962; and to Pennington, writing his memoirs after 50 years in law enforcement. Pennington managed to keep the German's from manning the Big Gun long enough so that the Allies can bomb the railroad tracks, but he is captured. The Camp Commandant likes to play games, and does so with Pennington, so that he is not trusted by the other prisoners. Pennington escapes and eventually gets back to Wisconsin with a wound that may or may not be responsible for destroying his manhood. He believes that the Nazi is responsible for killing the Pragers, but no one else does. He has to prove he is right or there will be serious consequences for the nation. Steve Thayer has written, among others, SAINT MUDD, THE WEATHERMAN, and SILENT SNOW, all set in St. Paul, Minnesota. They were well written and gripping noirish novels, especially SAINT MUDD, set in the 1930s. The WHEAT FIELD, the first book about Deputy Pennington, had a theme of perverse sexuality and politics, and was acceptable. This book has the same themes but they have been done before. Read the St. Paul books by this author. Leave Kickapoo Falls to die an unmourned death.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, April 2003
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
