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I love a good mystery. Unfortunately, one doesn't come along often enough. Many of them read very much alike and the stories seem to all blend together. I find frequently that the characters have no distinctive personalities and their voices are flat. So I was surprised --- and hugely delighted --- to find a mystery with some real body by a writer who knows how to pace his plot. What a joy to find this treasure. With THE BLACKBIRD PAPERS, Ian Smith kicks the mystery/thriller genre up several notches, making this one of the most satisfying books of the year.
A highly regarded Dartmouth College professor, on his way home from a celebration in his honor, disappears within a mile of his house. He has just called his wife on his cell phone when he encounters a disabled pickup and stops to help the two men. His body is found the next day, racial slurs crudely carved into it.
FBI agent Sterling Bledsoe receives an early morning call, informing him of his brother's disappearance. Despite agency policy to the contrary, Bledsoe tackles the case, traveling to the bucolic town of Hanover, New Hampshire. Grappling with the guilt of unresolved sibling rivalry, he works with a passion to bring his brother's killer to justice, interviewing a host of campus and town figures, both sinister ones and genuinely caring ones --- at least, seemingly genuine. Meanwhile, his attempts to soothe his newly widowed sister-in-law seem to be working, until she announces that she simply has to get away. The house has too many reminders of her dead husband. He understands, but worries about her. He throws himself further into the mystery. The racial angle seems too obvious to Sterling. He just can't quite buy it, so he doggedly pursues other avenues, stirring up a hornet's nest of trouble.
Like I suspect many readers do, I looked over the dust jacket and perused website reviews, savoring each comment and every delicious morsel before launching headlong into the book. One of the summaries revealed that Agent Bledsoe himself becomes the prime suspect. I'll admit, I didn't see how that could be possible --- until it happened. I was turned upside down on my ear. It came as a smooth wallop to the senses. I nearly didn't know what hit me. Suddenly, the story was being taken in a totally different direction. Instead of the pursuer, Sterling becomes the fugitive. For him, clearing his name doesn't quite take priority over finding his brother's murderer, but, as you might guess, it certainly complicates his investigation.
In addition to the superb twists, the reader is in for a great treat at the revelation of who did the professor in and the unraveling of motive. It is hard to believe that this is Ian Smith's first foray into mystery/thriller writing. He is, simply put, outstanding.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
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