Book: Small Town Trouble
Author: Jean Erhardt
Publisher: Two Terriers Press
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| Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley The Murders in the Rue Morgue 1895 |
And, much to our good fortune, the lesbian
fiction genre is chock-full of quality mysteries, and populated by characters
who have become both familiar and revered in our culture. Browse any brick and
mortar or online bookstore, and you will find the shelves lined with the trials
and travails, and loves and losses of stalwart women like Micky Knight, Kate
Delafield, Jane Lawless, Lillian Byrd, Lindsay Gordon, Carol Ashton, Kit
O’Malley, Jude Devine, Kate Ryan, Maggie Gale, Rainey Bell, Delta Stevens, Calli
Barnow, and L.A. Franco.
I’ll even throw in Mabel Maney’s sweet, sassy, and smokin’ hot one-two
punch of Nancy Clue and Cherry Aimless for good measure.
While each of these memorable characters
routinely finds herself smack dab in the middle of some ne’re-do-well’s dastardly
deed, the authors who pen them have found fresh ways to challenge Poe’s
foundation in order to keep us on our toes and entertained for hours. That’s
where the fun comes in, because I hazard to guess that most readers really haven’t
stopped to consider the vast diversity of mysteries available.
Let’s start with the Police Procedural: These are generally cases investigated by law enforcement professionals
using factual police operations. They often describe many of the activities the
police undertake in solving a crime, and employ tricks of the trade like
forensics, autopsies, search warrants, informants, interrogations, and
interviews to gather and process the evidence needed for an arrest. A fun twist
to these mysteries is that the Big Bad is not always a known quantity at the
beginning of the book.
Next up is the Private
Eye: The private investigator is a licensed and bonded crusader for
justice and honor. She often feels compelled to defend those in need of help,
especially the most vulnerable among us, including children, puppies, and saucy
vixens with legs up to “there”. Authors sometimes overlay this sub-genre with
noir, a delightful little French
term, which really means that their stories serve up a hearty helping of gore,
brutality, lust, and sexual exploitation to advance the plot. This is why so
many PIs in literature fall victim to self-destructive tendencies, questionable
decision-making, and bad relationship choices.
From there, we look into the Amateur
Sleuth: In these mysteries the protagonist has a regular day job—usually something that
doesn’t require accountability or regular hours. However, sometimes she is
independently wealthy, with an abundance of time on her hands. Occasionally,
the amateur sleuth actually works in a job that offers her unique knowledge and
experience—which is precisely why one should never accept employment with a nosey
horse trainer, caterer, or herbalist.
Regardless of who is actually ferreting out
the clues in our favorite mysteries, the reader will invariably encounter yet
another layer of sub-genres. These include Suspense, Romantic Suspense, Intrigue,
Historical, Whodunits, and Capers. Each one has a special set of requirements
that sets them apart from the others, such as fighting for one’s own survival,
striving for love and justice, piecing together a curious puzzle, or bumbling
into the big reveal.
And while so many among us extol the virtues
of the formulaic romance—because we all need a good love story now and then—mystery
is, by definition, anything but formulaic. Mystery remains fresh, and
interesting, and different because of the diversity of characters and layers of
intricacy involved in each and every one.
It’s all about the mix and match metaphor.
Cue author, Jean Erhardt, and her brash
and bawdy caper, Small Town Trouble.
Kim Claypoole’s mother, Evelyn, is courting financial disaster, so Kim
reluctantly leaves the safety of her Gatlinburg
doublewide, her avant-garde restaurant, and her married, Republican paramour to
return to her hometown to help out.
But something fishy is happening in Fogerty, Ohio. Kim arrives to find
her nearly bankrupt mother has been offered an ungodly sum of money for a
backwoods radio station by a man who doesn’t exist, and the owner of the local
Gentlemen’s bar has been found dead with his winky excised. Kim obsesses about her
over-permed girlfriend, but is reacquainted with Amy, her best friend/crush
from high school. Things escalate when Kim’s cousin, Abbott, is found dead with
his winky M.I.A., and Amy’s dim-witted brother, Rick-Rod, is fingered for the
dastardly deed.
The dynamic duo
begins to search for clues into the connection between the mysterious moneyman
and the murderous winky thief. Along the way, they encounter a bevy of topless
tavern dancers, small town cops, a well-connected felon, and an unplanned meeting
with the Grim Reaper. Will Kim and Amy find the REAL killer, and free Rick-Rod
from the hoosgow? Will Evelyn find a way to forestall foreclosure on her
beloved Gone With The Wind prefab?
Will remaining cousins, Alonzo and Agee, remain at the oars of WFOG?
Erhardt’s Small
Town Trouble is a classic Amateur Sleuth Caper. It calls out to the
inveterately curious among us, and gives voice to our affinity for gossip, our
desire to dig below the surface, and our need to winnow out information that really
is none of our business. Kim Claypoole is affable but not a pushover;
adventurous but not stupid; and wisecracking but not sarcastic. Amy
is a willing and able sidekick, while Evelyn, Alonzo, and Agee are
unintentional foils. The local police could either help or hinder, and as much
as things have changed since Kim left home, they have remained the same. Kim is
a local, but she is also an outsider.
Small Town Trouble benefits
greatly from the first-person narrative, and allows the reader to live vicariously
through the waggish Kim Claypoole. Her mistakes come from naïveté and lack of
experience, but never a lack of intelligence or consideration. She is
involved in the mystery, and remains tenacious in the face of danger because it
is personal to her and her family. Even though she views her kin as cartoonish
crackers, her involvement in finding the mysterious moneyman and the murderous
winky bandit comes from authentic emotion. And, like most amateur sleuths and
interfering busybodies, she asks questions of the wrong people, and finds
herself and her sidekick threatened by the Big Bad when they least expect it.
This results in a pulse-pounding reveal that brings all elements of the mystery
back into heavenly alignment.
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| Author Jean Erhardt |
Not all mysteries are or should be the same,
and each should be considered unto itself.
Jean Erhardt’s Small Town Trouble is a fresh and fun example of a textbook amateur
sleuth caper—the characters have personality, the plot is conceivable, the
pacing is quick, the dialogue is solid, and the humor abounds. My first read
left me with concerns about the plausibility of why the Big Bad was a Big Bad,
but my second read through allowed me to toss that problem out the door, and simply
enjoy the mystery. Small Town Trouble
is bright and playful, and leaves me with a desire to see what Kim Claypoole is
up to in her next adventure, Deep Trouble,
due out in spring of 2014.
