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If Nick and Nora Charles are sipping martinis on a cloud in Mystery Heaven and worried that no couple has appeared to succeed them, they need not look beyond Patrick O'Donnell's MCCOLLUM'S RUN. The acerbic, witty retired pair, Phil and Paula Oxnard, fill the bill nicely. At the opening, Roy McCollum is accosted in his office by two men proposing a shady real estate deal. Roy is both an honorable man and one cursed with a bad heart. His own dream was to run a ski lift up the backside of the mountain from Pole Pine Lodge, which he owned, to the ski area. Roy collapses, and, as one of the men reaches to call 911, the other restrains him, and they leave Roy to die. Enter Phil and Paula. Phil has retired after a career as a junior high school English teacher, with another stint in publishing. Instead of taking to the recliner or playing golf, to the consternation of his family, he has apprenticed himself as a private investigator. Paula is an expert on urban education and is planning to use her retirement time to work on her book on the subject. Phil and Paula's son is married to Roy McCollum's daughter, now owner of the ski lodge. It is likely to be for sale, and Rob and Sally offer Phil and Paula two weeks free at the lodge, asking the favor that they nose around about real estate agent Bob Drell, who seems to be the mastermind behind the potential buy. In the bar, on their first night at the lodge, they meet a man who is trying to find his cousin, Andy Plinthe, at the request of Andy's mother. Paula glibly volunteers Phil's services (pro bono) to seek out information on the young man. Hunting season has just begun, and Phil and Paul are warned that the hunters sometimes become rowdy and disorderly. They see this in action, when vegan Martha Davenport comes into the bar and chains herself to a post, screaming that she will not leave until deer are no longer slaughtered. A very drunken customer throws a beer bottle (which misses) and then attempts to accost her. A huge biker, Whitey Boggs, intervenes and decks the drunk. Whitey, the drunk, and Martha are headed to jail. As they leave, Phil tells the officer that Whitey was simply defending Martha. This action earns Whitey's undying gratitude; he tells Phil that he will do anything for him. Frank Gornick, assistant manager of the lodge, all round sleaze and probable skimmer of funds from the bar, is found dead, in what is called a hunting accident. At this point, Paula moves into the background, as Whitey becomes Phil's Sancho Panza, the two making an odyssey through the Bay Area, in search of answers, at the end of which they tie Andy's disappearance to the murder of Gornick. The characters are superbly done, the standout being Whitey, but the others are almost as vivid -- the bartender Cal; the drunken Pam; the 'uberfeminist' Brenda; the shady opportunists, Bob Drell and John Fortright, and other assorted spear carriers. The plot moves along at a brisk pace -- few words wasted and just the right number of red herrings. A second reading makes one realize how well the clues to the murderer were planted, but never so obvious as to give the identity away until the very end.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, December 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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