Things In Ditches

Rating:
Summary: "Fargo" revisited?
Review: Perhaps it is the convincingly claustrophobic vision of Minnesota in the winter. Maybe, it has to do with the unselfconsciously quirky characters and their convincingly drawn eccentric reasoning and personalities.

Also, it does not hurt to find a mistery plot as unconcerned about mysteries in the conventional sense as this. In this novel the true mistery lies in trying to follow the minds of its protagonists.

So why is it that the movie "Fargo" keeps insinuating itself as this book grabs a hold of this reader (and I mean that as a supreme praise!)? I read many novels in the hopes of occassionally finding one as terrific as this author's debut work. A truly rewarding read!

Rating:
Summary: Visions of Wile E. Coyote
Review: There are a lot of very interesting things in ditches around the fictitious town of Willow River, Minnesota ("90 miles from St. Cloud.") In this debut "murder mystery novel," Jimmy Olsen takes the reader on a wild, cleverly plotted, tour and introduces us to wonderfully quirky characters along the way.

Here are some jewels: After an early season blizzard, the Town Deputy reports in: "Guy from Iowa out on 11 last night. Heading to Fargo. Slides off the road, sits in his car until it runs out of gas, then starts walking. After God only knows how long, he ends up in the middle of Buttonbox Lake. Thinks he's a goner out on the ice when he spots Duane Jorgenson's fishhouse. Breaks in and gets the stove going. Nothing else to do so he opens the hole and hauls in six crappies. Strolls up to Milly's this morning big as you please, knocks on the door and wants to know if he cleans the fish will she make him breakfast. When she called they were playing Double solitaire. He needs a lift. Suppose they ate the fish." To which the Chief of Police replies: "Hope not. They're evidence. Iowa guys aren't licensed to fish in Minnesota."

Or here's an Okie trying stealth-driving through the snowdrifts with a Minneapolis yuppie: "' We can chance the truck awhile longer, but don't bang against anything or start yodeling,' Murdock warned. He believed yodeling and consumption of rhubarb endemic to northerners."

My favorite character is the power and symbolism of the timberwolf.
P.S. I hate rhubarb - but I really enjoyed this book!

Rating:
Summary: Love that title!
Review: THINGS IN DITCHES starts with the murder of Vicky Johnson, her body discovered by Walleye Wertz, a mentally-challenged man out collecting cans and other valuables jettisoned by passing cars. Jimmy Olsen turns the traditional mystery on its head in that we know who killed Vicky at the beginning. The setting of the novel is Willow River, Minnesota, and the supposed killer is the local butcher, Dutch Cleland. He's such a nice guy that we can't believe he choked Vicky to death. But Cleland admits that he did it. At first he thinks about killing himself, but rejects the idea. He doesn't want to traumatize his wife, Jean, any more than she's already been by his long past affair with Vicky. He decides to head north to his cabin instead. Oh yeah, there's a snow storm coming.
The novel includes about the best description of a snowstorm I've read. Cars are submerged by snowplows; there's a whiteout; the temperature plummets below zero after the snow; there's a brutal windchill. And some of the characters actually like it that way.
Olsen also does a bang-up job with characterization. My favorite is the town Chief of Police, Charlie Benson, who gets less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. Charlie and his dispatcher, Marlene, have a kind of school marm, remedial student relationship. Charlie usually does what she tells him to do.
There are a few things that bother me about the book. The constant interruptions in the storyline are annoying. Olsen decides he better introduce us to Vicky. He takes us on a scuba diving vacation in Honduras. This flashback goes on and on and on. Meanwhile we're wondering what's happening with Dutch and Vicky's two ex-husbands, one of them a homicidal maniac, who are after him. Several chapters later Olson flashes back again, this time to show us why Dutch and Vicky broke up. Instead we're wondering what he saw in her in the first place. Later on he interrupts the story yet again, from the perspective of a timberwolf, right in the middle of a shootout. The wolf scene makes sense later, but I think it's really there to show off Olson's descriptive flair.
That said, the merits far outweigh the drawbacks. I think the selling point in any novel is whether or not you'd recommend it to a friend. I'd have to say I certainly would. And I love that title!