Book Review: The Deadline

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Deadline     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Ron Franscell
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Write Way, Nov 1999, $24.95, 306 pp.

Neely Gilmartin has little time to clear his name as he suffers from a fast spreading cancer. He wants the new owner-publisher of the weekly paper “The Bullet” to find out who killed Aimee Little Spotted Horse over five decades ago. Although there was little evidence connecting him to the crime, tempers were hot and the Judge was biased against Neely.

Instead of frying in the chair, Neely pleaded guilty to a crime he did not commit. He wants to die knowing that his name is clean. Morgan does not believe Neely’s story, but does a bit of checking. He soon wonders why some of the townsfolk force the bank to try and foreclose on his paper and why some people are trying to get advertisers to boycott the paper. While Morgan digs deeper, one person’s soul cries out for redemption while another screams for the truth to be revealed.

When a mystery novel leaves the reader weeping, the tale has to have destroyed genre boundaries and that is the essence behind THE DEADLINE. Ron Franscell reveals a corrupt and ugly underside to the image of idyllic small town living. Justice in the late 1940’s operates more on a prejudicial concept than based on a blind legal system. Lives are taken because someone is labeled as undesirable in a culture that loathes diversity. Only the courageous can make reparations and in many cases they must feel like Quixote. Though a fabulous mystery, THE DEADLINE is also a condemnation of those who thrive on the kind of hate that erodes a nation’s soul.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner