Review
Reviewed by Wendy Runyon, Front Street Reviews
Bob Aveys mystery novel, Beneath a Buried House, was the perfect choice for a lazy Sunday--murder, blackmail, a touch of romance and enough twists and turns to keep this reader on her toes. This is the second book in the authors series featuring Tulsa, Oklahoma Homicide Detective Kenny Elliot.
Detective Elliot lands a case after the body of an unidentified man is discovered in an apartment. If appearances are to be believed, the death is most likely a drug overdose; however, Detective Elliot believes otherwise. The scene is a little too perfect and the victim seems out of place with his surroundings. The carvings in the wooden table, an observant neighbor, and a mysterious man leaving the building when the police arrive offer promising leads.
The stakes are raised, however, when the body of a prostitute is discovered that looks like the woman last seen with the murder victim. A search of her home provides a possible motive for her murder, but how does it tie in to the other murder or is it completely unconnected? With only days left to solve the crimes before his captain puts him on another case, Detective Elliot must work quickly.
To complicate matters, Detective Elliot finds himself distracted during his investigation by a rather beautiful and mesmerizing woman. The intensity of their attraction to each other from the first moment is a bit too strong to be believable. Perhaps such a powerful reaction had more to do with the fact that it reminded him of a painful part of his past, involving lost love and regret.
Kenny Elliot is both intelligent and a gentleman, but he is not without his own vulnerabilities. He knows how to hold his ground when he or someone he loves is threatened. He is a man with good instincts when it comes to the job. He listens to his hunches, which at times almost seem to be like premonitions, and is often right on the mark. This earns him a bit of hazing from his superior and colleagues who repeatedly remind him that evidence and facts are needed to solve an investigation. That does not stop the detective from tracking down leads and collecting the evidence to back up his gut feelings.
Bob Avey takes on the subject of faith, touching on aspects of paganism as well as its relationship to Christianity in this novel. He does not fall into the trap of stigmatizing paganism, but rather makes a point of suggesting that it is the individuals interpretation and twisting of the beliefs that can take faith, regardless of type, into a dark place.
I was immediately drawn into the story, finding it well written and compelling. The author takes the reader into some rather dark places without being overly graphic. Beneath a Buried House is one of those novels that keeps the reader turning the pages right up to the very end. If his first novel is as suspenseful and intriguing as this one, I definitely will be seeking it out.
The Book Connection
If you enjoy unusual mysteries with multiple twists and turns, then check out Bob Avey's latest novel, Beneath a Buried House.
Tulsa Police Detective Kenny Elliot has a keen sense for the unusual. The death of a John Doe from an overdose seems like an easy case--to everyone except Elliot. He's sure there is more to it than meets the eye. His mission to discover the truth finds him deceived at every turn and makes him the target of an unknown danger.
In this second book of Avey's Detective Elliot series I found much to enjoy. The characters are well-developed and complex; the plot thickens as the list of potential suspects increases; and I never expected the ending.
I haven't read the first book in this series, Twisted Perception, but now I'm more curious than ever to see where Elliot got his start and how he solved his first case.
This book started off a bit slow because it is told from several points of view. The reader is introduced to eight characters who play a significant role in the book within the first six chapters and there is also a reference to a person from Elliot's past that plays a role in forming Elliot's relationship with women. But at a certain point the story picks up as the clues come together and Beneath a Buried House becomes a real page-turner. I couldn't put it down until I finished the last page.
My only disappointment is that Avey ignored an important event towards the end that intefered with how the rest of the story played out. No matter how I tried to get around it, I couldn't, and it spoiled what could have been a perfect ending.
Beneath a Buried House is a thrilling, suspenseful mystery that will have you waiting to see what case Elliot has to solve next.
Suburban Fiction Book Reviews
Detective Kenny Elliot had just been handed his first murder case. A dead reporter had been found and was linked to a local prostitute with unusual religious ties. As Kenny searches for the prostitute he finds the same pagan symbols bringing forth the possibility of cult involvement. When the prostitute ends up dead and a second suspect disappears it seems that his trail has dried up but nothing could be further from the truth. Ignoring the orders of his Chief and following a well groomed sense of intuition Kenny follows each nearly imperceptible hint until he ends up in a dead end town that is dominated by an enormous church. Despite the detectives dogged persistence this backwoods religious order with its own privately owned compound is determined to keep its secrets deeply buried.
Beneath a Buried House is part of the detective Elliot series and holds a lot of promise. Kenny Elliot is a likable character partly for his flaws and partly for his moral certainty. He is a small city, green thumb Colombo with a jock background, an open heart, old fashion values and good instincts. You get the sense throughout that he is easy to manipulate but eventually catches on to the ruse. Overall not a bad main character, however, his visual description was left vague at best.
The plot is a slow to start tale of religious extremism in small town America. Once the engine is revved up the reader starts to take second notice of the importance of suddenly suspicious characters. A couple of scenes involving the effects of religious doctrine caught my attention most fervently. One involved a definition of Unitarian Universalism which was right on the money. As a practicing Unitarian I was happy to see that the author took the time to do his research. The other was a discussion of deprogramming a former parishioner of an organized cult. Both scenes rose above the plotline adding another level of significance to the story.
Author Bob Avey sets forth a clean though sometimes slow presentation of people and places. While the action sequences are nerve racking and unexpected, the love scenes lacked nuance and patience. Whenever Kenny was faced with a pretty lady he sounded like Humphrey Bogart from Casablanca. All things considered it was an enjoyable read and worthy of the modern mystery genre. Beneath a Buried House will be released in June 2008.
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