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Johnny Groover was Robinsville, Pennsylvania's star football player, but he left his hometown in disgrace in 1941 after participating in an armed robbery. The sympathetic judge let Johnny enlist in the Marines rather than serve jail time, and now, two years later, Johnny is returning to Robinsville. Wounded three times and declared a hero for his actions at Guadalcanal, Johnny has been called home by President Roosevelt to serve as a poster boy for war bonds. Before he embarks on his national tour, however, he returns home for a few days of celebrations in his honor. Many of his neighbors have not forgotten Johnny's past, though, and a few days after his arrival Johnny's body is found in the middle of the football field. The circumstances surrounding his death were never clear, and more than fifty years later a young reporter named M. T. Jefferson interviews Scrappy MacFarland, Robinsville's former newspaper editor, to find out what really happened. The book switches back and forth between the present and the 1940s; the story of Johnny Groover's murder is told in third person, even though it is apparently based solely on MacFarland's memories. The author tries a little too hard to evoke a sense of place and time in the 1940s section of the story; the references to popular songs, radio programs and cars are spelled out too explicitly and do not flow naturally. Having a few historical references go over the reader's head is preferable to shoving each reference in her face. The author does a good job of showing how the war has changed the town (more women working, many young men away at the front, factories running around the clock to provide for the war effort), but the atmosphere could use a little more work. The mystery is disappointing as well. The reader knows from the beginning that Johnny's death was suspicious, and he made so many enemies before he joined the Marines that almost half the town seems to hate him. Most of the book is set-up, though, and Johnny's body isn't discovered until 33 pages from the end of the novel. At this point, Kate Fallon is called in; Kate has arranged the celebrations in Johnny's honor and is apparently the town's own Miss Marple. She solved murders in Jefferson's two previous novels about wartime Robinsville, but she is hardly involved in this one. Kate doesn't solve the murder by piecing together clues to the killer's identity, she simply notices a discrepancy that allows the police to accuse Johnny's murderer. This lightning-quick denouement, combined with the slow set up, results in an unsatisfying mystery.
Reviewed by Kathleen Chappell, April 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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