Jerry Kennealy, Jigsaw

Jigsaw

Jerry Kennealy

Dunne, Apr 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 0312354754

Without a second thought beyond the usual that the lunatics have found email, San Francisco Bulletin reviewer Carroll Quint deletes the message referencing the brutal stabbing of actor Montgomery Hines in his shower. He also tosses into the trash basket an email re the murder of screenwriter Charlie Reeder, whom Carroll found dead; the murder weapon being a leg of lamb.

However, upon further reflection, Carroll reconsiders that both emails were from apparently the same person, Thanatos, obviously named for the Greek god of death, and that the emails tie to Hitchcock movies. Carroll regrets tossing the two emails, but has mixed feelings about receiving a third. On the one hand, it might provide a clue to the Hitchcock killer while on the other another person is dead. He need not worry as Thanatos sends more emails with references to The 39 Steps and Frenzy while his mom advises him the killer is in plain sight like the midgets in Casablanca.

The fun in this fine serial killer tale is with the homage to Hitchcock and the trouble with the law that Carroll is in as the police assume the reporter is the killer while also suspecting he stole a valuable necklace from arts patron Gineen Rosenberry. The whodunit takes a back seat to the Hitchcockian references that will remind the older readers of Vincent Price's Theatre of Blood yet the audience will enjoy Carroll's investigation to prove he committed no crimes other than perhaps some poor reviewing (I plead the fifth).

Harriet Klausner