By
Author: Shannon Fay
Tag line: A
gunshot, a locked door and a body. You
didn’t have to be a detective to know there was trouble at the lodge!
Police characters: None.
The gist: Margaret and her husband Don were spending the
weekend at Don’s father’s lodge, along with Don’s father and his brothers Jason
and Eric. The two brothers bickered over
money and their inheritance. Don’s father was in poor health and did not have
long to live. Don wanted to spend some quality time with his dad, but his
brothers seemed only concerned with getting in a good word about their
share. Jason went for a walk around the
property. The father went down to the basement to get his fishing tackle and
rods. There were also hunting rifles in
the basement. Shortly after Jason left
for his walk, Margaret, Don, and Eric heard a gunshot from the cellar. They
hurried to check on dad, but the basement door was locked. They finally gained
entry by popping the lock with a knife. Dad was found dead in front of his work bench,
a bullet wound in his head. Don and Eric
were crying and in shock. A voice behind
them asked, “What happened?” It was
Jason at the bottom of the stairs. When he saw his father dead, he appeared
upset. Don thought perhaps his father had
been cleaning his gun and it had gone off.
Eric thought his dad may have committed suicide so as to not suffer from
his health problem. Margaret thought it
was murder.
What had
Margaret figured out?
Crime scene: The family lodge.
Clues: None really.
Suspects: Only Jason
was missing when the gunshot was heard.
Red herrings: None.
Solution: Margaret
realized that while his brothers argued in the living room, Jason had sneaked
down to the basement and shot his father to eliminate any change his father
intended to make to his will. He locked
the top door then did the deed. When the
others hurried down to see what had happened, he had hidden behind the stairs
and then appeared as if he had come down the stairs.
My two cents: The way it reads it
sounds like Don is there with his father and his father’s brothers…but they are
Don’s brothers. Clumsy sentence.
As only Jason was missing when the gunshot was
heard, it had to either be an accident or Jason was the killer. Frankly, Margaret would not have been able to
deduce that Jason had snuck in and down the stairs. I’m not sure how she “realized” that.
So, yes, we
have motive. We have no police work to
fiddle with. We have no clue to find. The characters were believable up to the
point where Margaret solves the crime. The pacing was good. The writing was fair. I say that because of the clumsy sentence
mentioned above and the sorry way that the author had Margaret solve the crime. It could have and should have been more
creative.
In real life
the police would do a gunshot residue test on everyone’s hands and the killer
would be found quickly. Ah’m jus say’n.
Four
stars. Minus one for the “Margaret
realized” nonsense.
