The Murderer Vine by Shepard Rifkin

Preface:

When I first came onto Hard Case Crime books, this one was actually the second book I ever read under the imprint. When asked for recommendations into the books that Hard Case Crime has published over the years, this is the first one I recommend.

 

 

The Murderer Vine by Shepard Rifkin (original pub. 1970; HCC pub. 2008):

Joe Dunne, the protagonist of this story, is an expat American living in the boondocks of  South America. He is talking to a priest he has met, and begins explaining how he came to be living out in the far reaches of civilization.

In his previous life, Dunne was a private eye in New York. He took basically any job that came along, not much caring for the moral implications of what he did to get the job done successfully. After a successful job of convincing a drug dealer to take his business elsewhere instead of his client's local high school (which involved beating the crap out of the dealer), Dunne is recommended to another potential client.

This guy is rich. He is also the father of a young boy who was working with Voter Registration in the 60's racist South. He knows for a fact that his son and two black men he was working with have been killed. He also has information that 5 racist Southern men were responsible. What the man, named Parrish, wants to hire Dunne to do is to go down to the town where it all happened, find information that would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the 5 men were guilty, enough so that they could be convicted in a court of law. But Parrish also wants to be the judge, jury and executioner in this endeavor. After Dunne has gathered evidence, Parrish wants the guilty men killed.

Parrish, being rich, is not expecting Dunne to do this at his regular rates. He is willing to pay what is essentially a LOT of money (at least by 60's standards) to be the executioner part in his stead. 

If you are reminded here of the film Mississippi Burning, I don't think you'd be too far off the mark. The movie was based on a real event and, although the main characters on the side of good were federal agents, and wholly committed to doing the right thing legally, the book, written in 1970, and the movie, filmed in 1988, both involve an investigation into a despicable act. Both have their main protagonists trying to get to the bottom of a murder of three innocent civil rights workers, and the basic coverup by the established local authorities. 

Dunne, with the help of his secretary, Kirby, pose as a married couple; she a devoted wife, and he a university professor seeking a PhD in spoken languages. This PhD ruse allows him to go around talking both with white and black people in the community. What he is really hoping for most of all is to get some of the black people to open up and reveal some hidden knowledge they would be afraid to express to most white people. Especially local whites.

After all, this was the 60's when a black person might get hanged just for looking at a white woman. Dunne ingratiates himself with the local whites, sometimes even resorting to doing something he hates: expressing an affinity for the racist prejudices of a major portion of the white community.

Eventually he manages to get invited to the local "racist country club", the crowd of "good ol' boys" whom he suspects were behind the disappearances. He also finds the bodies of the victims. After a meeting with Parrish showing him the evidence he goes back to the town to earn his keep. And, of course, that involves killing the 5 men who were responsible.

This book does tend to drag just a bit at times, but you tend to ignore it, because Rifkin kept up the interaction between the characters rather well. My personal opinion is that it was a good decision to write this book in the first person narrative. If this had been written in the third person omniscient narrative I think I might have bogged down during those parts where the main character debates with himself on the project he has mapped for himself.

Quiggy's Rating: 8 out of 10 

Happy reading

Quiggy