Chain of Fools: A Donald Strachey Mystery.

Smith, Charles Michael

Chain of Fools: A Donald Strachey Mystery

by Richard Stevenson

Harrington Park Press. 184 pages, $10.95

In light of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's recent acquisition of the venerable Wall Street Journal, Donald Strachey's latest mystery is very timely. Two newspaper chains, described as "the good chain and the bad chain," are bidding on the Edensburg Herald, an upstate New York newspaper. The family that owns the paper is divided on which chain should take it over. Janet Osborne, its editor and the lesbian daughter of the Herald's late publisher, brings Strachey, a private investigator, and his partner Timothy Callahan, a state legislative aide, into the situation. She favors the good chain that would uphold the paper's traditional standards and liberal philosophy. Her gay brother Eric, also a supporter of the good chain, is dead. She and his lover Eldon "Skeeter" McCaslin suspect murder. To make matters worse, an attempt has been made on Janet's life. Strachey's job is to find out if a family member supporting the "bad" chain is responsible before another life is lost. As a longtime mystery fan, I prefer the hard-boiled noirish storytelling exemplified by John Morgan Wilson in his series of mysteries featuring gay newspaperman Benjamin Justice, while Chain of Fools is as tame as the Hardy Boys. My major complaint is that the reader never gets to see the day-to-day workings of the Herald. Janet Osborne, who supposedly runs a respected newspaper, is never shown at work and sure spends a lot of time out of the office. This is pleasurable read, best suited to a reader who likes the violence and mayhem kept to a minimum: there's nothing here that will disturb one's sleep.