Briarpatch
by Ross Thomas: A Review by Warren Bull
Briarpatch
won the Edgar Award in 1985. The novel is worthy of the award. When Detective
Felicity Dill is obliterated by a car bomb, her brother, a consultant to Senate
subcommittee, flies to his hometown for her funeral. He wants to find her
murderer and to get a deposition from his best friend as a youngster. The
friend worked for the CIA in Vietnam and accumulated a fortune as an arms
dealer.
The author created memorable
characters throughout the book. Every character was distinct and unique no
matter how small his or her role was in the book. His description of hot
weather had me sweating. Benjamin Dill was only slightly less tarnished than
the others who populate the corrupt environment. His task was to find the
killer from a host of characters all of whom had the ability and inclination to
carry out the crime. As Jack Nicholson said in the movie Chinatown Dill is, “…the
leper with the most fingers left.”
My guess is that Thomas enjoyed throwing surprises into the
novel. They certainly popped up unexpectedly. And I will not give them away.
Unfortunately the blurbs on the book do. I am becoming convinced that someone
wanting to enjoy a book should not read the back cover description or any
blurbs. The author once said,
“What is eavesdropping to others is research to the novelist.”
Read this and enjoy it. I certainly
did. I recommend this vey highly.
