Murder on Monte Vista is an offbeat noir PI mystery and the first book in a new series by David S. Pederson. Due out 15th March 2022 from Bold Strokes Books, it's 226 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This book has quite an offbeat pacing and plot development. I was impressed at the verisimilitude of the writing. It's set in 1946 and it really reads like a novel written contemporaneously. It's pitch perfect with regard to pacing and dialogue. It definitely could have been written in the years after the second world war and decades before Stonewall. Most of the characters are gay, and in or out of their respective closets in a time when there were real risks involved in living as a gay man in the USA. Main protagonist Mason is a successful PI and something of a loner in his private life, although he has a circle of friends and a steady platonic relationship with a female friend with whom he enjoys outings to films and the occasional dinner date.
The plotting is, as stated, quirky and unexpected. The main crime occurs as a locked room mystery where the protagonist himself has insured that the door and windows into the room are firmly locked and bolted. The investigation and resolution are cleared up relatively quickly and cleverly by Mason himself after learning some new and vital information. The presentation of the clues necessary to solving the mystery are not always according to "fair play" rules... but I found the main character and the atmosphere compelling and well done.
It reminds me in a lot of complimentary ways of other golden age "gotcha" mysteries by E.C.R. Lorac and Cornell Woolrich. Fans of offbeat noir American PI mysteries who don't mind the more sordid aspects (sex for hire, lots of smoking and drinking, anti-homosexuality laws and threatened violence, etc) will possibly enjoy this one.
Four stars. Intriguing. There is no explicit sexual content here and only mild cursing.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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