The Dead Survivors
A Mars Bahr Mystery
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Frank Beck, a man with terminal colon cancer, a new divorce, and a stack of debts, hangs himself. It's an open-and-shut suicide--except for a string of numbers inscribed on Beck's right arm. Minneapolis Homicide Detective Marshall Bahr can't make sense of the numbers or the fact that a guy everyone describes as sloppy tied a perfect hangman's noose for himself. But then he uncovers an obscure fact in the dead man's ancestry--a connection to the Battle of Gettysburg--and to make sense of its bearing on this homicide, he needs to understand ninety seconds of action at the end of this historical battle.
Mars and his partner Nettie Frisch begin to theorize based on the idea that this death-by-hanging just might be related to the Civil War. Then, another body turns up and before Mars can even believe it's true, they're are on the trail of a serial killer whose motive seems to be related to a contemporary controversy about Gettysburg and the descendents of the First Minnesota Volunteers, the legendary northern regiment who turned the tide against the Confederacy on that fateful day.
In this enormously compelling follow-up to Third Person Singular, KJ Erickson delivers a top-notch police procedural full of twists and turns, pitting a relentless cop against an equally determined killer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A disappointing follow-up to a promising debut (2001's Third Person Singular), this second novel featuring Minneapolis Special Detective Marshall "Mars" Bahr stumbles in ways mystery fans do not easily forgive: a meandering plot, a too-obvious killer and a limp rendering of what should have been a riveting investigation. Bahr, the head of the elite First Response homicide unit, takes on a case that appears to be a cut-and-dried suicide, except for a 13-digit number written on the dead man's arm. Then other "suicides" begin showing up, all bearing the same number. Gradually, it becomes clear that someone is targeting descendants of a famed Minnesota Civil War regiment, and dozens of volunteer genealogists work furiously to track them down. The real source of tension here is this race against the clock, but it is curiously tame and leaves readers unsatisfied. More satisfying is the very appealing relationship between Bahr, a divorced father, and his young son. The only true source of warmth in the book, as it is in Bahr's life, their time together is a joy to witness. One utterly charming scene between father and son about the birds and the bees almost makes up for the many gratuitous scenes throughout that add nothing and go nowhere but not quite. Erickson's obvious strengths make the flaws all the more apparent by contrast, and leave us longing for a more polished work next time.
