This was my first time reading a novel by Gil Brewer
and I was not disappointed. Although there were two mysteries and a few short
stories in between, this review is solely based on A Devil for O’Shaugnessy.
Meet Tolbert O’Shaugnessy, a con artist who uses the brandy
bottle to ease his pain and who chews Tums like it is candy. Tolbert meets
Miriam who cooks up a plan (The Big Con) to kill her Grandma and get a large
payday of over a million dollars. Here’s the catch…he would have to pose as her
cousin, Joseph Lancaster who has been declared dead in England but Grandma
doesn’t know about his death.
Brewer weaves a very interesting noir story filled with
colorful characters and even a rambunctious monkey named Gargantua who Grandma
is convinced is her deceased husband, Desmond sending messages and protecting
her. The dialogue was spot on and the mystery unfolded nicely in the midst of
Tolbert/Joseph falling in love with Ann Elliot, Grandma’s companion-secretary
and realizing that he couldn’t go through with the con.
Although there were a few typographical errors, I thoroughly
enjoyed the storyline and would definitely read other novels by this author.
Two thumbs up!
My
favorite lines:
“Grandma,”
I said, feeling suddenly worse than ever about the entire thing.
She
moved toward me, hands still out, beginning to snuffle now. Then she ran to me, flung her arms around my
shoulders, sobbing. The sobbing began to
alter, changing into laughter; and I could smell lavender perfume. Pressed against me, I could feel her bones;
she was like loosely stretched cloth strung over sticks. It was as if I could feel the sticks, her
bones, move brokenly about.
“Joseph,
Joseph,” she said, laughing around the words.
“I knew you’d come home, I knew it.
Desmond tells me it’s only a question of time, and here you are.” She gagged a little, snuffling, and turned
her face up to me, smiling. She was
feeling my arms now, pressing, grabbing with her fingers, checking to make sure
I wasn’t a mirage. “My little boy,” she
said, “My boy’s come home.”
“Yes,
Grandma.”
“Isn’t
it wonderful?” Miriam said absently.
Rating:
4 stars
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