| As noted here, I’m commenting daily on the WMG Holiday Spectacular—which is a great project that releases a story every day. These might be reviews. Or not. They might be interesting. Or … um … not. They will be fun, though. For me, at least. Here’s the next story. |
“Consigned in Peppermint”
Lisa Silverthorne
Bode Jameson is back, and I think that’s a good thing. If you’re reading along with these, you know was the central character in Lisa Silverthorne’s “Evergreen and Crimson,” and that he’s got the market cornered on down-on-their-luck police detectives in the cold, sloggy middle-Indiana town of West Lafayette.
On the whole, I get a Jim Rockford vibe on him (he says, fully exposing his age), and, while he’s got good friends on the inside, it makes me wonder how long he is for the force itself. I mean, he’s got a propensity to straddle the line when it comes to the authority of the hierarchy, and he’s not particularly good at following the rules. But he’s a good guy at heart. Mostly. He knows what’s right and what’s wrong. How long can he bend the rules and stay on the force, and how long can he stay on the force if he can’t bend the rules?
And there’s a lot more bad stuff going on in West Lafayette than might first meet the eye.
And now he’s been struck by this peppermint body-block of a possible sidekick (Can I get a McMillan & Wife reference in here to really seal the deal? Or maybe a Della and Perry Mason thing? Mr. & Mrs. Smith … stop me … somebody please stop me).
Oh.
The story, you say?
Oh, yeah, I’m talking about a story, so I should probably get to that.
“Consigned in Peppermint” is more thriller than mystery. More romance than detective. It moves quickly, which is good. I’m thinking it would have gone well into any of Kevin Anderson’s Pulse Pounder editions of the old Fiction River anthologies. Like a lot of pulse pounders, and action films, the plotline isn’t massively complex—the question isn’t really “will the good guy win,” so much as “how will we get there and how will it change the players.” I’ll not give away details because that’s a crappy thing to do, but I’ll say that I was quite the happy camper at the end (it’s a Lisa Silverthorne story, so you know it’s going to have heart).
And, yeah, Bode Jameson. If the sidekick works out in future stories, that could be good. Or not. Really doesn’t matter. Either way, I think the guy has a future in print.