Merryll Manning: The Health Farm Murders
by John Howard Reid
Lulu, 2008http://johnreid.exactpages.com/
Asparagus!
Originally published in Australia in the mid-1980's, the first and second of John Howard Reid's mystery series featuring Miami detective Merryll "Merry" Manning are now available to US and UK readers. Unlike most of Lulu's authors, Reid has won many awards, written several dozen books, and spell-checked his manuscript. Thus reassured, I packed his second title, Merryll Manning: The Health Farm Murders in my gym bag and set off for a recessionary "stay-cation" fifty miles down the road at a fancy Irish health spa and resort.
From the first page: it's a stretch to believe that a US-based detective would travel 16,718 miles to an Australian health spa, just for a rejuvenating break. Sure, it's explained that his ma was from Oz, but still- that's a journey that would kill you, even before attempting to live on the diet of grated carrot, raw almonds and cream. This was the police department from Miami Vice, though, during the height of the cocaine wars- maybe Merry has to disappear to the far side of the globe, with a big suitcase full of cash-?
Well, I claim to have interviewed nineteenth-century bushranger Harry Power and unearthed Jane Austen to receive an autograph from her homicidal zombie hand. Who am I to dismiss another's writing as far-fetched? Reading on, Manning arrives at a Sister Susan Delaflore's spa on Govett's Leap Road in Happy Valley, Australia. With him are a dozen other colorful guests: a wacky Texan astrologer looking for converts, an old salt named Captain Jurd who is always telling tales of the sea, a film critic who looks like Zapata, another guest who could be fatso Oliver Hardy, various other humorous creations. Though there are two different priests and John Howard Reid has written numerous books of Bible scholarship, Sister Susan is not a nun. She is a devotee of strict vegetarianism and is soon submitting her guests to a series of healthy torments that can only be borne with a stashed suitcase of fifty-two Hershey bars.
As in any proper grand-isolated-mansion-full-of-strangers-harboring-secrets thang, guests and staff start getting picked off one by one. This brings in the local cops- Captain Colin Berwick and Sergeant George Lambert- and there's tension between Merryll Manning the Big City Detective and Happy Valley's local yokels. It helps that Sergeant Lambert's daughter is a fiery hot sheila, and that in true convict tradition, the town's resident thief, Jimbo Punter, is skulking about whacking people with a big iron bar.
Mysteries of the "one-of-the-people-in-this-very-room-is-our-murderer!" nature were never my cuppa, and in 2010 they aren't my Darwin Stubby. Merryll Manning: The Health Farm Murders is entertaining, and is sure to please fans of the Agatha Christie whodunnit sub-genre. The afterward notes that the plot twists described were based on several actual events, and Happy Valley was based on the beautiful Blackheath in New South Wales' Blue Mountains. But, Sister Susan carrying on the health farm's usual course throughout the multiple deaths-? I found that as hard to swallow as tofu and sliced cucumber. The nearby town has only a few thousand residents, and these health spa murders do not even make front page local news until page 139-?
and life is grand! And I say this at the risk of falling from favor with those of you who have appointed yourselves to except me to say something darker.
Critical Mick says: Merryll Manning: The Health Farm Murders, like my stay at Mount Wolseley, was pleasant with a few exclamation points. John Howard Reid's second Merryll Manning novel is tangy and wholesome, like two fresh oranges sitting side by side on a breakfast plate. Personally, I prefer my crime fiction as shocking as a Red Savina habanero. It should twist your gut and bring tears to your eyes with its scorching, undeniable reality.
Zombentino, baby!
Other reviews have been very positive....
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