Catch And Keep (Worldwide Library Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: A good catch, but a shallow pool.
Review: Ron Weber's "Catch and Keep" is a good mystery. It has a good cast of characters, well drawn and true to life in Northern Michigan. The plot lines are twisted and interwoven: the environmental feuds, the Michigan militia, the challenges of human diversity--all of these are true to Northern Michigan as well.

And the description of the Borchard/Boardman, and of the town politics, and even the Big Boy turned brew pub and the tourist-clogged streets of Traverse City--all are realistic and well-described.

I should know: I live there! I have to say that not only has Weber selected an intriguing and beautiful area in which to set his mysteries, he has created real and believable characters and a fascinating plot line which has its foundation in Northern Michigan sociology and culture.

To my mind the fatal weakness in the novel is the understanding and portrayal of the women. Lucille, Sarah, and Allison are central to the action. It is the allure and secret of Lucille which brings the death of Allison and the passion of Sarah, not to mention the obsession of Mysterious Max. But Weber brings the reader no understanding of this motivation, no real empathy for the human tragedies displayed here. It's a strangely academic and dispassionate view which leaves the reader puzzled and confused.

Rating:
Summary: A good catch, but a shallow pool.
Review: Ron Weber's "Catch and Keep" is a good mystery. It has a good cast of characters, well drawn and true to life in Northern Michigan. The plot lines are twisted and interwoven: the environmental feuds, the Michigan militia, the challenges of human diversity--all of these are true to Northern Michigan as well.

And the description of the Borchard/Boardman, and of the town politics, and even the Big Boy turned brew pub and the tourist-clogged streets of Traverse City--all are realistic and well-described.

I should know: I live there! I have to say that not only has Weber selected an intriguing and beautiful area in which to set his mysteries, he has created real and believable characters and a fascinating plot line which has its foundation in Northern Michigan sociology and culture.

To my mind the fatal weakness in the novel is the understanding and portrayal of the women. Lucille, Sarah, and Allison are central to the action. It is the allure and secret of Lucille which brings the death of Allison and the passion of Sarah, not to mention the obsession of Mysterious Max. But Weber brings the reader no understanding of this motivation, no real empathy for the human tragedies displayed here. It's a strangely academic and dispassionate view which leaves the reader puzzled and confused.

Rating:
Summary: Synopsis
Review: When an ex-newsman Fitzgerald gets a call from a former colleague asking him to track down a missing stringer for a Detroit paper, he follows the reporter's trail to a story of the controversial "catch and release" fishing policy in Michigan's lower peninsula- and gets quickly hooked by a new murder.

The reporter is dead, shot in the head while she sat at her computer. But she didn't die along: her husband rumored to be a local bootlegger, is found dead a few miles away, same execution style. With the help of his girlfriend Department of Natural Resources agent Mercy Virdon, Fitgerald picks up the dead woman's investigation into a group of angry anglers, the Catch and Keep Alliance and their mysterious defenders, a powerful militia group. Soon he's wading into treacherous waters, where a killer is bating a new hook.