Book Review: Fly Fishing Can Be Fatal

Reviewed By: Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM

Fly Fishing Can Be Fatal     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
David Leitz
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Sports
Series: Max Addams # 4
St. Martin's Dead Letter Mystery; 1997; $5.99; pp 260

I would never have read this book if not for a recommendation from someone on RAM. Its outside all my usual criteria for choosing a book. Fly fishing is a sport I just don't understand. I never read books about organized crime and the plot of this one revolves around the death of a crime boss. I really enjoyed this book despite the story being told from the perspective of a rather chauvinistic male resort owner. Well, at least he appears to be a throwback to the 60's swingin' singles bachelor types. But then the hero is in his 60's so he's true to his background.

I'd consider this a cozy although people who don't like that genre would find enough in it to enjoy it too. What I liked about the book was the descriptive detail in setting that took me back to my childhood experiences in our rustic Michigan hunting camp which wasn't that much different than this Vermont fishing retreat. I liked multiple layers of the character's personalities, including a dog with a peculiar talent for pointing fish. The one exception is the boss's floozy, and she was a dead on stereotype from the old 60's movies.

I even got a kick out of the smaller state politics which are reminiscent of those "around here." I always like a plot that is complicated enough that I have a hard time guessing "whodunnit", and this time I was fooled. And how can you not thoroughly get sucked in to a book with an opening line like "I guess I should blame Robert Redford."

This is the third in a series and I plan on finding the two others for my TBR pile.

Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM