Review: Things in Ditches

Jimmy Olsen's very odd Things in Ditches. It's very matter-of-fact about its violence, and the violence is essential to the story, and certainly not gratuitous, but it is also very, very disturbing, as it should be.

I don't know why I had this book hanging around on my shelf for so long. Vicki tried to get me to read it because she had such strong, mixed feelings about it. I can see why now. It is very peculiar, but also beautifully written and thoroughly compelling. After a few thousand mysteries I'm hard to surprise, and most of the big surprises I get are of the unfortunate kind that make me stop reading, but Things in Ditches is genuinely surprising and unpredictable without being illogical or silly.

It's also an unusual book in that you know who the killer is, and who the victim is, from the first few pages, and they aren't especially unusual people and the crime is rather ordinary and you don't see how this could possibly lead to a book. Later you find yourself simultaneously hoping the killer will escape and hoping the police chief will solve the case. A pretty neat trick.

I admit to having some reservations about reading books from publishers I've never heard of, because these days there are so many springing up, and so many of the books aren't good at all. So I went in with modest expectations. And boy was I wrong. The guy can just write. Quite a few typos and misspellings, as usual from small presses, but not to the point of serious distraction.

It's also the only time I've read of body snatching by a man on a tricycle, an event not played strictly for comic effect, though it was somewhat funny. The main flaws of this book are that it is from a small press with no experience with mysteries, and that it has a terrible, if appropriate, title and lousy cover art that makes it look like something you'd find in a religious bookstore, maybe essays on bereavement. Sure doesn't look like a mystery. But it is, and one of the best books I've read this year. I hope to see much more of Jimmy Olsen.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Mark Alan Miller - RAM

Book Review: Things in Ditches