Night Shadows Press, April, 2009
Hardcover: 978-0-9799167-9-3
$26.95
Trade Paper: 978-0-9799167-8-6
$15.95
272 pages
Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis
Nashville P. I. Sidney Lanier Chance is not a typical private investigator. Sure, he has a military and law enforcement background; he lives alone, has a brash female associate, and is a man’s man when it comes to physical size and ability. Sid Chance, though, is fifty-nine years old. He lived for three years in a cabin he built with his own hands in the mountains of East Tennessee, only reluctantly allowing himself to be persuaded to return to the city and hang out his P. I. shingle. He is more deliberative than reckless, treats women as his equals yet hasn’t forgotten the manners his mother taught him, and reflects in his manner something of the poet and Confederate blockade runner for whom he is named. In short, Sid Chance is a Southern gentleman; not the silly, drawling, white-suited caricature, but the solid, modest man of character you can count on in a bind.
In The Surest Poison Sid is hired by a lawyer representing a company under the guns of the government and the public for a toxic chemical spill. HarrCo Shipping, though, bought the property years after the contamination occurred. With the serious health effects only now showing up, the company stands to suffer expense, both monetary and in good will, for a problem it had no part in. Sid Chance’s mission is to find the people responsible. He quickly learns how difficult this will be, as one lead after another runs into a blank wall. A night-time explosion and three possibly-connected murders ratchet up the stakes, and Sid finds the routine task has suddenly turned deadly.
Mr. Campbell does a masterful job of plotting, and tells us a tale that keeps the pages turning. The best part of the book, though, is the cast of characters he has assembled and the atmosphere their interactions create, right down to the fried chicken, mashed potatoes, string beans, and peas they have for Sunday dinner (lunch for those north of the Mason-Dixon Line). I’m looking forward to the further development of Sid, Jaz, and The Five Felons and Miss Demeanor Poker Club (you’ll have to read the book).
Copyright ©2009 Larry W. Chavis