Murder Book

 By Thomas Perry

Mysterious Press             2023

399 pages     Thriller

When I began Murder Book, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. I knew Thomas Perry by name and reputation, but I didn’t know how propulsive his novels were. Once I got started, I couldn’t stop. That’s saying a lot about the book right there!

Harry Duncan is a Chicago-based private eye having had a long career as a police detective. His ex-wife and U.S. Attorney, Ellen Leicester, called to ask him to look into some crimes being committed in an area of small towns in Indiana. She is worried that these crimes are an aspect of a much larger organized crime  operation. Why in small town Indiana? It seems an anomaly until Harry puts an end to the work of low-life bad guys who are extorting protection money from property owners in Parkman’s Elbow, Indiana. He then realizes that the crimes he has canceled are just the beginning. His search for villains takes him back to Chicago and then back to the Ash River in Indiana, where the solution to the crimes presents itself.

 The title, Murder Book, comes from the diaries that Harry keeps for every crime that he works on and solves. He writes down each day’s activities and the ideas he has for what he should explore the next day. We are privy to his thoughts, but more specifically, the reader sees the entire crime through Harry’s eyes and his actions. In other words, the focus of Murder Book is entirely on Harry. There are several other interesting characters, including the US Attorney, Ellen, but all of the action revolves around Harry. This creates a propulsive rush all the way through the book that keeps the reader turning pages.

The solution as to why the Ash River area in Indiana is the scene of the crime comes from an unlikely source—sandhill cranes. When I looked up “sandhill cranes in Indiana,” I found that they come to an area called the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, which is near the small town of Medaryville, Indiana. I am sure that this is the area Thomas Perry had in mind as he was writing the book. Some scenes take place in Chicago, which is about 90 minutes away from Medaryville. I looked all this up because I thought that the only Midwest place sandhill cranes spent time was at the Bernard Baker Sanctuary north of Marshall, Michigan. ( I have actually visited that sanctuary and watched the sandhill cranes.) I agree, it’s kind of funky, but it is a very clever plot device and totally unexpected.

I had to laugh at myself as I was reading Murder Book. I went for a hike in a woodland area and plotted how I would sneak through the area without anyone seeing me. Harry Duncan does that a lot—parks totally out of site, creeps around the grounds, and “cases the joint” without anyone knowing he is there. I found myself being Harry.

Last night I began watching The Old Man on Amazon Prime. This is a TV series based on a novel by Thomas Perry. I could see that much of what moved The Old Man along is what I was admiring in Murder Book. The Wall Street Journal says that Perry writes thrillers that move “almost faster than a speeding bullet.” Real Book Spy review says that this thriller “proves yet again that he remains one of the strongest writers in the genre today.”

If you love private eye mysteries, you will learn a lot from reading Murder Book. I heartily recommend it.