Ticket to Ride: A Sam McCain Mystery

by Ed Gorman

Overview

Against this background McCain tries to enjoy himself during the long Labor Day weekend party the town sponsors every year, reuniting with several old friends who appeared throughout the first six novels. Now that they're all in their late twenties some of the old grudges and rivalries seem silly until two of them are murdered for what seems to be a motive buried in the past With the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan irritating those over thirty and the boys in long hair and girls wearing blouses without bras irritating people even more Sam McCain is forced to realize that his old world, along with the entire country's, is about to end forever. "

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605982595
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	10/12/2011
Series:	Sam McCain Series , #8
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Ed Gorman has received the Shamus Award, the Spur Award, and the International Fiction Writers Award. Ed lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Editorial Reviews

Sam McCain has the rueful wisdom and charm of an exemplary hero is curious not only about whodunit but also about some of the more elusive riddles of human existence.

San Francisco Chronicle

The kind of hero any small town could take to its heart.

Marilyn Stasio - The New York Times

An absorbing mystery that offers an insightful portrait of small-town dynamics and plenty of deadpan humor.

Joanne Wilkinson - Booklist

Ed Gorman is the poet of dark suspense.

The Bloomsbury Review

Sam McCain has the rueful wisdom and charm of an exemplary hero is curious not only about whodunit but also about some of the more elusive riddles of human existence.

San Francisco Chronicle

1965. Echoes of the Vietnam War trouble the waters of Black River Falls, Iowa-which, as fans of attorney/investigator Sam McCain know, were never all that peaceful to begin with. Something about Harrison Doran makes certain people want to take a swing at him. Whether it's his larger-than-life good looks, his way with the ladies, his antiwar stance, or the promise that he'll inherit $10 million, even mild-mannered McCain can't abide him. When hawkish Korean veteran Lou Bennett is stabbed to death the night after he decks Doran at an antiwar rally, McCain's alcoholic boss, Judge Esme Anne Whitney, asks him to represent Doran and prepare a defense on his behalf. That means replacing him in jail with someone else, even though Doran, after his initial panic has passed, indicates that he's in no hurry to be found innocent or even to make bail. To the accompaniment of a '60s soundtrack and concomitant cultural markers from Norman Mailer to Candid Camera, McCain makes the rounds of the usual sources (idiot police chief Cliffie Sykes, reporter Sally Weaver, soft-core pornographer Kenny Thibodeau) and fresh new faces auditioning for the role of killer: book-burning preacher H. Dobson Cartwright, Bennett's daughter Linda Raines, ultra-right-wing retired fire chief Ralph DePaul, and William Hughes, who's been Bennett's dogsbody ever since Bennett saved his life in Korea. When finally identified, however, the killer comes out of deep left field. The locals seem to be displaying more dirty laundry more openly than usual (Fools Rush In, 2007, etc.). Blame the Beatles.

Kirkus Reviews