THE GOOD AND THE DEAD--Review

The Good and The Dead

by Seymour Shubin

ISBN: 1-885173-82-2

A Write Way Publishing release in 2000

A fine, dark, finely constructed murder mystery with a Prologue that should be carefully read.
Ben Newman is a crime writer. He writes for a publisher of multiple true crime and police/detective  magazines.When the story begins, Newman is waiting for one of his many police contacts, a detective who has often brought Newman into the developments of murder and other crime investigations in their city.  The detective, one of several police contacts Newman has carefully developed to feed him sometimes private and elaborate details of cases they are working on so that Newman can continue to make his living as a free lance contributor to several of his New York publisher's true crime and police procedural periodicals.It's a good if often pressurized existence. Newman's life is about to be turned sideways. A deeply disturbing phone call from his brother reveals his sister-in-law has died suddenly under suspicious conditions and his brother may fall under suspicion.  

Ben goes immediately home to his brother to support him in the ensuing investigation and that's when a series of violent murders befall the citizens of the city, more and more of whom are known and even linked to Newman himself. He begins a deep dive into his own history parallel to the work of the police, even as he has to deal with increasing suspicion aimed at his brother. For the first time in his life Ben Newman must use the techniques and attitudes he has learned as a true crime writer working closely with law enforcement to solve a series of murders that seem to emotionally entangle him more and more.

The scenes are artfully drawn, the language precise and evocative, descriptions well-drawn so that most readers, regardless of the kind of early schooling they participated in, vital to the narrative, will find themselves recalling, remembering and comparing their own youth. An excellently devised and constructed if occasionally upsetting novel with long reality that is more than well worth the read.