MIND SCRAMBLER: A John Ceepak Mystery
Chris Grabenstein
Minotaur Books
Mystery
ISBN: 9780312382315
Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepak mysteries have been popular from their inception. Set in a fictional but very realistic vacation community of Sea Haven, New Jersey, Ceepak is the mentor of series narrator Danny Boyle; the two are policemen, with the less experienced Boyle partnered up with the veteran and strongly upright Ceepak. Grabenstein manages to follow a general pattern from book to book without becoming formulaic; the characters change, seemingly in real time. Thus Ceepak, over the course of the few years since the beginning of the series, has gotten married and is raising a family, while Boyle has grown more seasoned and a bit more sure of himself.
In keeping with this practice, Grabenstein, after four excellent volumes set in Sea Haven, moves the setting of MIND SCRAMBLER, his latest Ceepak novel, to Atlantic City. This is a brilliant decision; one of the appealing aspects of New Jersey is how diverse the northern, central and southern sections of the state remain while sharing certain elements. So it is that the shift to Atlantic City makes for a challenging, but not jarring, change of scenery for the series. Atlantic City is a blend of the best and worst of New Jersey, and just similar enough to Sea Haven that Ceepak and Boyle are not fish out of water; rather, they are just swimming in somewhat unfamiliar territory.
Ceepak and Boyle are in Atlantic City on business (partially set up as the result of events occurring in HELL HOLE, the previous volume in the series). While new to the city as a team, a number of characters from previous books flit in and out of the narrative to ease the transition. There is nothing easy, though, about the presence of Katie, Boyle’s former crush, who makes an all-too-brief appearance as the nanny for the children of Richard Rock, an immensely popular casino illusionist. Boyle had carried a torch for Katie, and there is still a bit of a flicker to it, as evidenced by Boyle’s reaction when Katie makes arrangements to meet with him after Rock’s performance one evening. But Katie never makes it to the rendezvous; she is found brutally murdered under scandalous circumstances. Grabenstein presents a neat and clever variation of a locked room mystery here, though the room isn’t so much locked as under surveillance, and the only one seen entering it is Danny.
Things get sorted out in due time, but the issue of the identity of Katie’s killer remains, and becomes even more important when others associated with Rock’s performances turn up dead. Ceepak is his usual steady self, providing a calming presence for Boyle, who is understandably upset about Katie’s demise. Ultimately, it is Boyle whose determination and developing powers of observation win the day, setting up an increasingly important role for him in future volumes.
As Grabenstein moves the series forward, Boyle can be seen maturing personally and professionally. He is coming into his own as a result, not quite losing his hero worship of Ceepak but instead focusing more on learning from him as opposed to the slack-jawed adoration of previous novels. But the most significant aspect of the book is that Grabenstein demonstrates he is not above removing sympathetic characters from the board (or the boardwalk, as the case may be), adding an extra layer of suspense not only to MIND SCRAMBLER but also to those installments of the series yet to come.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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