See the Mystery Review Crew’s review of The Great Gatsby Murder Case by David Finkle
The Great Gatsby Murder Case
Author: David Finkle
Genre: Mystery, Detective
On a beautiful spring day in New York City, writer Daniel Freund receives two surprises. First he finds a long sought after 1953 edition of The Great Gatsby free for the taking on the steps of a building right down the block. The other occurs when he brings home his treasure, begins to read it and sees the words lift off the page and start rearranging themselves. After a few moments he realizes he is being sent a message that there has been a murder.
Prompted by The Great Gatsby itself, Freund begins an investigation. Guarding the brownstone’s premises is notorious nosy neighbor Ms. Estelle Belfer, who is only too happy to share the details: a death in a locked room a few years back, deemed an open-and-shut suicide by the police. Freund eventually wrangles his way into the non-crime scene and finds there is a lot more to the story. Now, wildly curious and determined to find out what really happened (and coming home to a book becoming more noisy, insistent, and emotional), he delves deeper and deeper into the case.
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Review of The Great Gatsby Murder Case
The Great Gatsby Murder Case is a light-hearted mystery with an original storyline and just a touch of fantasy added in.
Written entirely in the first-person narrative, and set almost exclusively in current-day New York City, the story is being told by protagonist Daniel Freund. Professionally, Daniel is a writer currently between novels, and he freely admits to being a compulsive Great Gatsby collector. When he spies a copy of the book in a pile of books offered for free on a neighborhood stoop, he grabs it. It turned out to be a 1953 edition, which David longed to have.
When Daniel started reading the book, while he was on the introductory sentence, strange things began to happen on the page. The page even began to spark. Eventually, the book lets Daniel know that the previous owner of the book has been murdered, and the book enlisted Daniel to get to the bottom of it.
In getting to the truth, Daniel gets some help from the apartment building busybody, Ms. Belfer, and the retired detective who originally closed the case years ago, Detective Sergeant Izzy Abramovitz.
The author did not hold anything back with the description. Much of it was of the “in your face” variety. For example, in describing Abramovitz’s eyes, the author wrote, “Under eyebrows that needed a hedge trimmer to tame them, his eyes were dark, most likely black from my perspective. Piercing only begins to get them. Laser-like understates their effect.”
The character arcs of Daniel and Abramovitz are the best. When they first meet, Abramovitz is condescending to Daniel to the point of degradation. However, after wrapping up the reopened case, they both have a very real and mutual respect. (Ms. Belfer’s arc remained unchanged: a busybody is a busybody is a busybody.)
The humor, while slight, was done very well. The story is not comedic, but the available humor inserts the right amount of levity to consider this a cozy mystery. For example, when the narrator describes by saying, “There was a pause so pregnant it almost went into labor,” the effect is golden, yet the meaning stays on point.
The highlight of The Great Gatsby Murder Case is its originality. The storyline can be a refreshing change for readers who enjoy reading cozy mysteries.
About David Finkle
David Finkle is a New York-based writer who concentrates on politics and the arts. He writes regularly on theater, books and music for New York Stage Review and The Clyde Fitch Report, where he is chief drama critic. He’s contributed to scores of publications, including The New York Times, The Village Voice, The New York Post, The Nation, The New Yorker, New York, Vogue, Mirabella, Harper’s Bazaar, Psychology Today, Saturday Review and American Theatre. He is the author of People Tell Me Things, a story collection, The Man With the Overcoat, a novel, Humpty Trumpty Hit a Brick Wall: Donald J. Trump’s First Year in Verse and Great Dates With Some Late Greats, a story collection.
Visit him at http://www.davidfinkle.com/
