Review of "The Autumn Dead," by Ed Gorman

 Review of

The Autumn Dead, by Ed Gorman, ISBN 0345356322

Four out of five stars

An aging ex-cop is handed a case to retrieve a case

 Jack Dwyer is an ex-cop that now works for a private security agency. Most of what he does is bust shoplifters and other petty criminals. He is a bit overweight and has few prospects to improve his situation. However, he has an interesting past that is focused on his high school years.

 A woman that was a flame of his in high school and has retained her beauty suddenly pops back into his life. She offers Jack a significant amount of money to retrieve a suitcase from the house of a man she had been living with. Since she has a key and claims that the suitcase is really her property and she still has a significant sway over Jack, he agrees to take the job.

 When he gets there he finds the owner unconscious from a blow on the back of the head. This is the first hint that the case is much more complex than Jack thought. His actions involve his high school classmates that he fought with back then, some that never amounted to much, and others that managed to amass wealth. Jack is also stalked by a woman in black leather that rides a motorcycle.

 While this is in many ways a very standard murder mystery, Gorman demonstrates that he is a master of establishing the context. Jack Dwyer grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood and Gorman does an excellent job of describing how people like that grow up, aspire to something better and while some succeed, many never leave the soil of their roots. Some have little more than pride.

 At the climax, Dwyer demonstrates that he is very clever and can still hold his own when the situation devolves into a deadly confrontation. While somewhat formulaic, Gorman once again demonstrates that he is very good at establishing a realistic background and can keep the reader a bit off balance regarding the culprits.

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