The Missing Man
– Hillary Waugh, 1964
Critics credit Hillary Waugh as a pioneer in the mystery
genre that is described as “police procedural set in a small town.” The series
hero Police Chief Fred Fellows and his sidekick Detective Sergeant Sidney Wilks
starred in nine novels, with the initial one, Last Seen Wearing, ending up on many lists of best mysteries of all
time.
In The Missing Man
Fellows and Wilks piece together clues to determine the identity of and find
the killer of a young woman whose body was found on a Connecticut beach. They
use good old-fashioned police work as they unleash operatives to do the tedious
review of hundreds of documents and lists. They also use their experience,
imagination, and reasoning to reach conclusions. Fellows is an every-man type
of character, subject to slips and goofs but creative and compassionate to the
victims’ families as well. Waugh himself grew up in small town Connecticut so
the setting of Stockdale feels authentic. A Yale man, he gets in some digs at
posing Yale men.
Waugh passed away in 1988 at the age of 88. His obituary
in the New York Times ends with Waugh’s advice to mystery writers: “Authenticity
is the key to good mystery writing. Not only must you be able to write well,
but you must also possess the instincts of a good reporter who has witnessed
firsthand the darker side of human nature.”
No comments:
Post a Comment