Ed, Not Eddie by Max Everhart, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Asheville (NC) private investigator Eli Sharpe is hired by the father of a major league baseball prospect to find out who is sending her death threats, in Ed, Not Eddie, the third mystery in this series by Max Everhart.

Yes, Ed, not Eddie, Leviner is a young woman attending a small college in South Carolina, and a phenom on the baseball field with a killer knuckleball. She's said to be on several major league scouting lists, and if selected, will no doubt receive a sizeable signing bonus. But the rural town where she lives is torn over her prospects, with half rooting for her to succeed and the other half protesting against her and, by extension, baseball itself for even considering her. Eli's investigation uncovers several possible suspects, most in need of money and trying to leverage Ed's success into a financial windfall for themselves. But when one of Eli's suspects, Ed's mother, is shot dead, the stakes are raised. And Eli believes that Ed may be next.

There is so much misdirection in Ed, Not Eddie that even when all is said and done, nothing seems to be settled. An epilogue, which no doubt was written to help clarify the present situations of the remaining characters, does little to do so. Quite the fine mess, to be sure. But there are a few elements worth praising. Eli Sharpe is an endearing character, an astute and deductive private investigator, who is really quite a pleasure to follow around. His associate, Ernest Carpenter, the nearly complete personality opposite to Eli, is almost as appealing. The rural South Carolina setting is well-drawn and provides a solid backdrop to the proceedings. Still, these hardly compensate for the awkwardly introduced and subsequently drawn out relationship between Eli and his television reporter ex-wife Vivian, the odd family dynamics of Ed's family, the openly accepted by all corruption of the local sheriff (who, but of course, had an affair with Ed's mother, leading to her parents' divorce), and more. It's all a bit seedy and not in a good way from a crime fiction perspective. Despite the strong start to this series, on balance, this latest entry is a swing and a miss, to use an obvious baseball metaphor.

Go Go Gato
Camel Press (Trade Paperback), July 2014
ISBN-13: 9781603819114; ISBN-10: 1603819118

Ed, Not Eddie

An Eli Sharpe Mystery by Max Everhart