Mystery Book Review: Smell of Death by F. M. Meredith

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Smell of Death by F. M. Meredith. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Smell of Death by F. M. Meredith
A Rocky Bluff Police Department Mystery

Tigress Press (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-9793857-5-X (097938575X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9793857-5-9 (9780979385759)
Publication Date: December 2007
List Price: $13.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): Rocky Bluff Police Officer Stacey Wilbur is called to the home of Darlene Brantley. Upon entering the home, Wilbur finds Brantley dead, and in a strange twist of events, Brantley's mother is also found murdered on the same night in her own home. While Wilbur assists Detective Doug Milligan in solving these crimes, other members of Rocky Bluff P.D. are on the lookout for the Barefoot Burglars and engage in a search for a missing toddler, hoping to catch the person responsible before another child disappears.

Review: Smell of Death is the fourth mystery in this series by F. M. Meredith featuring the investigative efforts of a police department in the (fictional) small coastal community of Rocky Bluff in southern California.

A veritable crime wave has struck Rocky Bluff. The brutal double murder of a mother and daughter, in separate locations and using different means, has the police department baffled. A series of daring home burglaries has taken place with two things in common: the thefts occur while the homeowners are present and the burglars leave behind bare footprints. A child has gone missing, presumably kidnapped, though no ransom demand is made. And then there are the assorted petty crimes that keep officers busy day and night.

Smell of Death is written largely in the style of a television crime drama. Reading the book is not unlike watching a show; both can be accomplished in one sitting and both typically have an intriguing start and a conclusion that wraps up all loose ends. In this regard, Smell of Death works as a pleasant way of spending a couple of hours.

As a police procedural, Smell of Death often gives up too much information to the reader, leaving very little in the way of suspense. The culprits are known to the reader well before the officers investigating the crime are aware of them. This approach can be quite successful (such as in the Columbo series of television mysteries) but here it's a bit flat possibly because there are too many officers investigating too many cases. To her credit, the author cleverly links everything together in the end, but it seems almost contrived by this point.

The personal lives of these officers are also explored. In contrast to the professional aspects of the story which seem genuine and real, these personal stories don't ring true at all. Fortunately, they don't take up all that much of the narrative but are somewhat distracting nonetheless.

Special thanks to Marilyn Meredith for providing a copy of Smell of Death for this review.

Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

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