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RELATIVE DANGER
by Charles Benoit
Poisoned Pen Press, February 2004
340 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1590580915


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Doug Pearce is young, inexperienced and naïve to the max. What's more, he's not a fast learner. So, when he loses his brewery job in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and gets a letter from a woman he's never met in Toronto, of course he runs right off to see her.

The woman, wealthy Edna Bowers, although her home doesn't give many clues, overwhelms young Doug with a glass of upscale Cabernet. Now, the only possible reason Doug has driven all the way to Toronto is because Edna hooks him with something about his uncle Russ. Edna offers to finance Doug's trip to foreign parts to learn who murdered Uncle Russ a couple of decades ago, apparently in Singapore.

Mrs Bowers wants to clear Uncle Russ's great good friend, Charley, into the bargain. Also in the bargain is a missing diamond, which may or may not be worth a pile of money. Edna, buoyed by many glasses of wine, shows young Doug some mementos from Uncle Russ and Doug, also buoyed by the wine goes right along with her tales of foreign adventures. The upshot is that he agrees to take Edna's money and go off to foreign parts to try to unearth the truth of the 1948 murder. But does he go off to Singapore, which would seem the logical next step?

Oh no. He goes to Morocco. And then to Egypt, and then to a couple of other exotic places, eventually staggering along to Singapore and that wonderful British hotel, Raffles, of such literary fame. Along the way he interacts with a raft of characters and enjoys a variety of adventures, sexual, dangerous, and wacky.

The problem with all this is that, with rare exceptions, Doug could be going from Toronto to Chicago to East Lansing, Michigan. Mr Benoit fails to take full advantage of the localities. That's too bad, because the solution to the mystery is excellent, the writing is very strong, the pace is good, the dialogue crackles and in general this is a really good novel.

There are a few problems with the main character. To make the story work, Doug has to maintain his inexperienced, naïve persona until the very end when he sort of shrugs off that coat and morphs into a keen and resourceful protagonist. However, the humor is good, the drinking is to be enjoyed and plot twists will have readers admiring Benoit's cleverness. All in all, an enjoyable novel.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, April 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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