The Good Know Nothing: A Tom Hickey
Mystery
Ken Kuhlken
Poisoned Pen, Aug 5 2014, $24.95
ISBN 9781464202865
Prior to WWI, Charlie Hickey vanished leaving his family over the
next two plus decades to wonder what happened.
In 1936, Bud Gallagher tells Charlie’s son LAPD Detective Tom why his
dad disappeared a quarter of a century ago and gives him a manuscript that he
insisted Charlie wrote years ago. A
stunned Tom struggles to accept Charlie fled from being framed and that the
novel practically is the same as The Death Ship by popular but anonymous B. Traven.
Tom discusses what to do about Bud’s alleged revelations with his
sister Florence. The siblings agree they
need to know the truth re the frame and the book with their only hopes being to
find and confront their father if he is still alive and Traven if he is not
Charlie. Neither expected the supposedly
dead Sundance Kid, Betty Weaver and her gang, and William
Randolph Hearst to be involved in their family quest.
The latest Tom Hickey Depression Era mystery (see The Biggest Liar in Los
Angeles) is a great entry as Ken Kuhlken deftly blends what
happened to Charlie with real people and events. Fast-paced, armchair readers will feel they
travel the southwest with Tom and Florence in one of the best detective novels
of the year.
Harriet Klausner
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