There are some authors who simply burst with stories to tell. Some exceed the
capacity, at least in theory, of what the publishing market will bear.
Accordingly, they turn to a pseudonym under which to publish some of their
work. Stephen King and Dean Koontz spring most immediately to mind as
examples; another, however, is Donald Westlake. Westlake's best-known alter
ego is Richard Stark, a vehicle he still utilizes for his brilliant, under
appreciated Parker novels. What perhaps isn't as widely known is that
Westlake also published a series of novels in the 1960s under the name Tucker
Coe. These novels concerned Mitchell Tobin, a disgraced cop who wants to
isolate himself from the world yet keeps finding himself by haphazard
circumstance being reluctantly drawn back into the life. Five Star is in the
process of bringing the Mitchell Tobin books back into print. May a thousand
blessings rest upon it for this good work. The Tobin books, taken together,
constitute an almost hidden history of modern crime fiction.
MURDER AMONG CHILDREN, the second of the Tobin books, opens with Tobin living
in isolation and personal disgrace following his embarrassing discharge from
the police force. The circumstances of Tobin's termination are revealed in
the narration and are best described there. Tobin is visited by Robin
Kennely, a cousin whom he has never met. Robin is associated with a Greenwich
Village coffee house that is apparently being shaken down by a police
detective and she asks Tobin to visit the coffeehouse and talk with the
officer to see exactly what he wants. When Tobin reluctantly does so, at the
gentle but persistent urging of his wife, he stumbles upon a double murder,
which apparently has been committed by Robin. She not only has motive and
opportunity, in a deft variation of the classic "locked room" mystery, it
appears that she is the only one who could possibly have committed the
murder. Tobin, to make matters worse, appears to be a witness against her.
Although Tobin wishes to have no further involvement in the matter, he
nonetheless finds himself pulled into it degree by degree, consciously
resisting but unconsciously drawn to it. The reader, meanwhile, is given a
sociological and geographical triptych of New York City in the late 1960s,
while being taken step by step through a mystery in its most classical sense.
Interestingly enough, MURDER AMONG CHILDREN does not end with explosions, car
chases, or cliffhangings. The bombshell lies in the quiet revelation of what
occurred.
Westlake, in his new forward to MURDER AMONG CHILDREN, discusses how Tobin
came to be and why there are only five Tobin novels. His account stands as a
revealing portrait of the creative process as well as a quiet testimony to
artistic and professional integrity and honesty. MURDER AMONG CHILDREN, with
the other forthcoming Tobin books, constitutes a snapshot of the early
development of one of the under acknowledged masters of American literature.
Anyone with even a remote interest in the mystery genre should make room for
this volume and its forthcoming siblings on their bookshelf.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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