[amazon_link id=”1464201498″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]
[/amazon_link]Title : Murder in Passing
Author : Mark de Castrique
Genre : Mystery
Pages : 250
Publisher : Poisoned Pen Press
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 3.8/5
Detectives Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson haven’t had much luck with work; cases aren’t coming their way . To while away this time, they join Nakayla’s mushroom hunting club on an afternoon adventure on the lands of the historic “Kingdom of the Happy Land”, a freed-slave commune. Sam in his search for edible mushrooms, falls and stumbles on an old skeleton. The police are called in, and Sam and Nakayla relegate the mystery solving to them.
However, soon after they are approached by a Marsha Montgomery who wants them to locate an old historic photograph of her mother’s which went missing sometime back. The photograph taken at a historic phase in time, and by a renowned photographer, could be worth a considerable amount now. Interestingly Marsha and her mother then lived on the same historic land where the skeleton has been found, and her father disappeared roughly around the same time.
Things heat up quite suddenly when Marsha’s eighty-five year old mother Lucille is arrested for the murder of Jimmy Lang, the skeleton which Sam stumbled upon. Is the discovery of the skeleton and Marsha’s sudden interest in a long-forgotten photograph connected, or is it all just a big coincidence?
This book is part of Mark de Castrique’s “Sam Blackman” series – this is the 4th book – but reads well as a standalone mystery. Although there are references to previous events they are fairly well-explained, so you actually don’t feel left-out. Sam Blackman, his partner Nakayla Robertson and lawyer Hewitt Donaldson are nicely-etched out characters and very likeable. Sam has a great sense of humor which comes through in his depiction of people and events, since the book is told in first person, from his point-of-view. Nakayla who is African-American is strong and sensible and also Sam’s lover.
I liked the way the mystery came together in pieces – there’s the skeleton, Marsha’s story, and the sub-text of racialism so prevalent in those times (1960s). There is the mystery to be sure, but what makes it believable are the characters and their motives. Castrique builds up a nice timeline of events and gives us a look-see into how things were then. His writing is rich with details and history. The plot and the motives are sound, and the author very skillfully binds all this together.
A very interesting mystery with ample twists and turns, this kept me reading. I’m recommending this book, and also putting the rest of the books in this series on my to-read list.
