See Also Proof: A Marjorie Trumaine Mystery by Larry D. Sweazy

Reviewed by Jeanne

Winters are always harsh in Dickinson, North Dakota, but this year of 1965 seems especially bad.  Marjorie Trumaine’s husband, Hank, succumbed to his injuries earlier in the year and now Marjorie is struggling to come to terms with her new status as a widow.  Living on a farm in a rural area where the closest neighbors are miles away adds to the difficulty, but Marjorie has her job as an indexer to help pay the bills—the many, many bills.  She’s not quite ready to deal with a lot of people yet, but agreed to have the Ladies Aid come by once a week, bringing food and checking on her. She knows they’ll disapprove of Shep the dog being inside the house but she doesn’t care.  He’s company.

This time the ladies also bring worrisome news.  A neighbor’s disabled fourteen year old daughter Tina has disappeared, and so far search parties have turned up nothing.  Marjorie is deeply troubled, knowing that the girl likely won’t survive long if she’s out in the cold. She bakes pies to take to the family, and insists on going with the sheriff to look for Tina. If there’s going to be bad news, Marjorie feels she would be the better choice to tell a grieving mother.

Instead, they find the body of a murdered man: a good man they’ve known for years.  But why was he here and who would have wanted to kill him?

Marjorie is one of my favorite characters.  I love her measured approach, careful planning, and how she conducts her life in addition to solving murders.  This one was a real stunner in several respects.  Her process as an indexer is fascinating and gives insight into her personality as well as the mystery.  (Full disclosure: when a new non- fiction book comes in, one of the first things I do is check for an index.  I am most disappointed if there isn’t one and the book drops a bit in my estimation.)

Sweazy is also adept at giving the reader a strong sense of place.  The flat fields in winter, the snow and ice, and bitter cold were well conveyed—so much so that for a moment I forgot that it’s actually summer and sweltering here in 2026.

Another very appealing aspect of the book is the era.  It brings back childhood memories, even if the geographic setting is very different.  There are rotary phones and pay phones, people smoke cigarettes, weather comes over the radio, and an animal in the house is shocking.  And there are telephone party lines, which were a great source of entertainment for my grandmother who loved to listen in on other people’s conversations. There’s not a computer or smart phone in sight, and not many television sets. There’s a sense of isolation, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

As a part of this era, Sweazy uses some terms not usually heard these days as he explains in an author’s note.  I appreciated that, as sometimes historical novels will use current language which jars me right out of the story. 

The only sad part is that there are just three entries in this series.  It’s one of the rare series I think I am going to re-read because these books are just that good.

Marjorie Trumaine Mysteries by Larry Sweazy

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.