Reviewed by Jeanne
Marjorie
Trumaine is a farm wife in North Dakota.
Life isn’t easy at the best of times, what with any number of disasters
waiting to take out the crops and the livestock, and these are far from the best
of times. An accident has left her
husband an invalid, and Marjorie has taken on work as an indexer to try to eke
out a living for them both. This would
be unusual, even today; in 1964, it’s downright odd. Even with the extra income, Marjorie wouldn’t
be able to keep the farm if it weren’t for the help of Knudsen boys, Peter and
Jaeger, who do many of the chores.
When
Sheriff Hilo Jenkins turns up on her doorstep, Marjorie knows it can’t be for
anything good, but she isn’t prepared for the shocking news that her neighbors
Eric and Lida Knudson have been murdered.
Eric was found with a strange amulet in his hand, and knowing that
Marjorie is a thorough researcher who can keep a secret, Hilo asks her to try
to find out as much information as she can about the amulet.
So
begins the first Marjorie Trumaine book, See Also Murder. Larry Sweazy does an incredible job of
creating a believable and relatable character in Majorie and in rooting her in
a specific time and place, and he does so with a great deal of subtlety. He doesn’t beat his readers over the head,
but lets the details tell the story: the party line telephone, the disapproval
by most at letting the farm dog inside the house, the near constant feel of the
wind. The mystery and its solution
seemed just a bit far fetched to me, I will admit, but frankly I didn’t
care. I am enchanted with Marjorie. She’s a strong, competent woman who loves her
husband and the land. She loves learning
and order, and takes pride in her work as an indexer. I’d never given much
thought to North Dakota as a place, but Sweazy makes it so vivid that now I
want to see it for myself. The culture
is well done. The population seems
largely composed of Scandinavian immigrants and their descendants, which ties
in with the Norse symbolism on the amulet, but is also reflected in attitudes
and food. I also very much liked how she is drawn into the mystery. Many amateur sleuths are sort of shoe-horned
in on the investigation due to a friend or relative being accused or just out of
pure nosiness. I’m willing to overlook
that because, hey, I’m agreeing to the conventions of the amateur detective
genre but I don’t need to have the author manufacture many, many explanations
for why an amateur is involved. The latter can be annoying. That is most definitely not a concern for me in these
books.
I
actually started with the second book in the series, See Also Deception. I picked it up on the basis of a review and
thought I’d give it a try. It was my
read-at-lunch book, and I could just put it aside if I didn’t like it. Instead, I was hooked immediately, mostly
because of Marjorie. She’s a fully
developed character from the start and someone I would very much like to
know. As soon as I finished that book, I
found the first in the series (every bit as good) and checked to see when the
next one is due out. Alas, it isn’t until
May, 2017.
Such a great series.
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