Harrington Manor (Book) - 3/17/2018 4:43:01 PM
Much More than a Fine Mystery
Harrington Manor by Ronald M. James is at once a terrific exploration of family dynamics, a charming and eagle-eyed evocation of 1920s California, and a smart, well-plotted murder mystery. Family patriarch Colonel Peter Harrington is quite the entrepreneurial visionary looking beyond the endless rows of orange groves he cultivates toward the real estate in and about Hollywood’s burgeoning film industry. As the Colonel describes the ill-founded perceptions of his son Shepp, “Shepp and his East Coast friends call us yokels, but we’ve been taking those land-hungry Eastern pests like a Chinese laundry.” The Colonel’s integrity, industry, and business acumen serve as not only the foundation of the Harrington family and its wealth but also as the cornerstone to the wonderful architectural edifice that is this novel: Harrington Manor richly develops the pasts of its characters even as James keeps an eye on the future.
As with all families, the manor has its share of unlikeable types but the good nature and wit of the Colonel, his youngest son Orson, and the brilliant and mercurial neighbor Emily give the novel a tremendously buoyant readability. Plus, the romance novelist Sara allows James to seamlessly present alternative, penetrating perspectives on the complicated family dynamics by contributing trenchant observations throughout. The southern California lifestyle of the early Twentieth Century is depicted with James’ exquisite sense of detail. While some of that outlook derives clearly from careful research, the author so casually and comfortably inhabits the period that quiet considerations like this one from Sergeant Crawford ring authentically: “After five minutes went by, the sergeant realized he was racking up a sizable phone bill for the county, probably approach a dollar . . .”
While the first half of the novel is all family intrigue, the second half is a fascinating and richly rewarding murder mystery. The presence of Detective Snipes serves as a grand, earthy, coarse counterweight to the more privileged characters inhabiting the upper rooms of the manor. The twists and turns that bound across these later scenes reveal as much about the social fabric and corruptions of the time as about the characters the reader has increasingly embraced. Harrington Manor is one of those fine novels that is much more than a murder mystery: it is fine period drama that captures the greed and vision from a hundred years ago that still haunt us today.
Too Beautiful For Words (Book) - 6/12/2015 7:41:00 PM
Undercover Style – A review of the novel ‘Too Beautiful For Words’
“In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb.” - Dennis Lehane
Sammy Shovel, the super PI once again makes his appearance in author Ronald M. James’s latest novel ‘Too Beautiful For Words.’ When the CEO of a big corporation with a squeaky clean image gets murdered, the local police department gets stumped when they aren’t able to decipher a set of clues left behind by the victim. That’s when Samuel aka Sammy comes into the picture as the hired PI of the corporation trying to find out their boss’s murderer. He quickly delves into the case and unearths some explosive and controversial information. But it also makes him the target of bad guys and he has to depend on his super sleuthing skills and gun slinging ways to find a way out of the latest muddle he has found himself in.
The narrative in this detective story is a mix of classic whodunit style and character driven plotting. The PI Sammy Shovel isn’t an all brawn; let’s shoot ‘em up kind of a guy and the storyline also reflects this attitude. Although there are enough action points that move the story forward there’s also this leisurely descriptive style to the narrative. Even in the midst of constant suspense, the story ensures that you get an adequate feel of the character’s surroundings and their thinking.
Since it’s set in 1993, we also get to see the police and PI conduct investigations by asking around and interrogating people as opposed to sitting in front of a computer and getting all the information. And even though there are a lot of fistfights and shootings, the violence is never overdone and the foul language too has been kept to a minimum. And full credits to the author for maintaining the mystery in the story till the very end.
Sammy dresses like a vagrant and it’s a recurring comic relief when prospective clients think he’s in disguise. But it also reflects the man’s attitude towards life; sure he doesn’t know how to take care of himself but more importantly he really doesn’t care what the world thinks about his life choices. Even so, sometimes we get to see an introspective side to the man when he ponders, if he dressed better, maintained a tidier office and learned to talk to people nicely, if he would then become a bigger success? Other characters like the police Lieutenant Braque provides the necessary ally cum discipliner role contrasting nicely with Sammy’s laidback approach to everything.
James does a great job with plot construction, filling it with enough twists and turns to keep you interested as you follow the experienced PI feel his way through the case. It has all the makings of a good mystery series and is worth following through.
An Adventurous Night (Book) - 6/5/2015 6:48:09 AM
It happened one night – A review of the novella ‘An Adventurous Night’
“Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” - Mark Twain
Author Ronald M. James’s brand new book ‘An Adventurous Night’ is a detective mystery novella involving a crime fighting super PI. Down on his luck and still recuperating from losing his partner in the line of duty, Sammy Shovel is a fast talking and sharp shooting private eye on the lookout for a new gig. Elsewhere in San Francisco, John K. Crowder, an influential businessman has reasons to believe the Tong family is trying to set up base in town to sell drugs. And on a cold San Franciscan night, two Italian thugs, a police agent from Hong Kong, Crowder and Sammy meet each other under mysterious circumstances. After an explosive shoot-out, bodies pile up and an investigation is launched to find the murderers. When Sammy is taken into custody he must work quickly to clear his name and find the real perpetrators of the crime.
“Sammy Shovel may be an anti-hero in appearance but he is a superhero when it comes to crime fighting skills.”
We follow the happenings of a single night in this smartly written story. As the search for the real killer widens, Sammy and the police detectives unearths dark, long-kept secrets of a certain individual that will forever change their perception about him. But it also opens the door to deadly danger. Each of the chapters has an episodic feel to them. It isn’t your average fast-paced crime caper. It moves slowly and takes its time to set each scene and establish the identity of its characters. There are also some smart interplay and witty quips in the dialogues between the characters.
“Sammy is always up for a good fight and he is at his entertaining best when he spars one-on-one with his foes and it doesn’t matter if it’s him or his gun that’s doing the talking.”
Sammy is pretty much a loner and doesn’t care about other people’s opinion about him. Losing his partner who was the closest he had to a friend really affected him. Yet when it comes to work, he is always on top of his game. His mind works faster than those around him and he is always observing things and formulating scenarios that will work towards his benefit. All the characters have depth to their personality, even the antagonists aren’t just bad guys shooting people and then getting killed in the end by the hero. A sincere effort has been made to portray them as real people and showcase the rationale behind their life choices.
At the end one can only hope that ‘An Adventurous Night’ is the first among many books in this new series involving the highly entertaining Sammy Shovel as a private investigator.
Harrington Manor (Book) - 11/21/2014 5:39:15 PM
All in the family – A review of the novel ‘Harrington Manor’
“It’s miraculous how the shallow can injure in such a profound way” - Anna Jae
A family is in many ways reminiscent of a fruit bearing tree, you have the strong trunk that is the matriarch or patriarch supporting the weight of many that are dependent on it. And just like with trees, all it takes is a single rotten member to spoil everything and bring down the whole family along with it. So it becomes critical to identify & weed out the troublemaker at the earliest.
Author Ronald M. James’s novel ‘Harrington Manor’ takes you to 1920’s California and into the heart of murder mysteries and other sinister criminal frivolities happening within the vast expanse of a land owned by a wealthy family. The Harrington family is headed by the patriarch with the army background, Peter also known as the Colonel, his wife Corrina and their four children, Sheppard, Reginald, Margot and Orson; they are as different from each other as it gets. While the elder two sons, Shepp & Reggie are always at loggerheads with their father to gain control over his vast finances, Margot is still in the process of discovering herself and ironically it’s only the non conformist son, Orson who shows any interest in carrying forward the farming business of the family. But when a couple of Harrington members start dropping dead, it raises a lot of questions and accusations fly thick & fast across warring family members which soon piques interest in the local law enforcement agency. Detective and not inspector Sidney Snipes enters the scene and starts an investigation which reveals such terrifying truths to the Harrington family as it does to the reader.
Ronald’s writing has this charming prose that will hook you in with its poetic brilliance hardly a sentence into the book. The narrative intervenes smoothly with the back stories of each of the characters along with that of the main story, doing full justice to both. All members of the family, including the butler Charles have been given enough space for us to explore their personalities in detail. There are small things that go a long way in creating the perfect atmosphere the author wants the reader to envision and one of these things in this book is the careful selection of the words and the general vocabulary which is consistent with the background and the time in which the story is set in.
Almost half way mark into the book and after the occurrence of a major event, the book shifts into a different gear and from there on, the pace and the mood of the book changes quite dramatically. The writing, especially when it comes to dialogue writing deserves special mention; the back and forth snappy dialogues between the main players are a definite highlight. It is also a masterful ability to be able to show each character’s personality by modulating their dialogues in order to create a separate & unique identity for each of them. You can in fact almost picture these characters as actors in a movie mouthing these dialogues with different accents and slangs.
One understated element of this murder mystery novel is the abundance of natural humor that is ever present in these lines, it’s never forced humor for its sake but rather it comes across effortlessly because of the differences and quirks in each character. You will be surprised at how often you will find yourself smiling and chuckling away as you are reading some of these passages. The investigation and interrogation scenes involving detective Sidney Snipes are some of the best scenes in the book. The editing too is top notch and the plot twists and turns will leave you amazed and you will never be sure of who the actual culprit is till it is revealed to you at the end.
There are a lot of individual sequences which when combined together makes this novel fully worth your time. The characters, the slick prose and the snappy dialogues all combine to make this a memorable work. I recommend this book not only to mystery lovers, but also to anyone who wants to read a well written book. And the only spoiler I will give you is that it’s a murder mystery novel about a wealthy family with a butler and no, it’s not the butler.
The Sammy Shovel Series: An Adventurous Night (Article) - 11/13/2016 7:15:17 PM
sounds an intriguing series. why not post more articles and snippets from your books to bring more readers to your den.
keep writing!
Harrington Manor (Article) - 8/13/2016 6:46:09 PM
Harrington Manor - is it very scarey, I LIKE the way you celebrate Halloween, it's all saints nite and I also look forward to those scarey things.
Harrington Manor (Article) - 10/23/2015 7:23:09 AM
I don't see the connection between the title, Harrington Manor, and this Devil's Island (I assume some kind of a model island?). Still looking for the article.
Ron
