Beneath a Buried House
Bob Avey
Reviewed by Wendy Runyon
Bob Avey’s mystery novel, Beneath a Buried House, was the perfect
choice for a lazy Sunday--murder, blackmail, a touch of romance and
enough twists and turns to keep this reader on her toes. This is
the second book in the author’s series featuring Tulsa, Oklahoma
Homicide Detective Kenny Elliot.
Detective Elliot lands a case after the body of an unidentified man is
discovered in an apartment. If appearances are to be believed,
the death is most likely a drug overdose; however, Detective Elliot
believes otherwise. The scene is a little too perfect and the
victim seems out of place with his surroundings. The carvings in
the wooden table, an observant neighbor, and a mysterious man leaving
the building when the police arrive offer promising leads.
The stakes are raised, however, when the body of a prostitute is
discovered that looks like the woman last seen with the murder
victim. A search of her home provides a possible motive for her
murder, but how does it tie in to the other murder or is it completely
unconnected? With only days left to solve the crimes before his
captain puts him on another case, Detective Elliot must work quickly.
To complicate matters, Detective Elliot finds himself distracted during
his investigation by a rather beautiful and mesmerizing woman.
The intensity of their attraction to each other from the first moment
is a bit too strong to be believable. Perhaps such a powerful
reaction had more to do with the fact that it reminded him of a painful
part of his past, involving lost love and regret.
Kenny Elliot is both intelligent and a gentleman, but he is not without
his own vulnerabilities. He knows how to hold his ground when he
or someone he loves is threatened. He is a man with good
instincts when it comes to the job. He listens to his hunches,
which at times almost seem to be like premonitions, and is often right
on the mark. This earns him a bit of hazing from his superior and
colleagues who repeatedly remind him that evidence and facts are needed
to solve an investigation. That does not stop the detective from
tracking down leads and collecting the evidence to back up his gut
feelings.
Bob Avey takes on the subject of faith, touching on aspects of paganism
as well as its relationship to Christianity in this novel. He
does not fall into the trap of stigmatizing paganism, but rather makes
a point of suggesting that it is the individual’s interpretation and
twisting of the beliefs that can take faith, regardless of type, into a
dark place.
I was immediately drawn into the story, finding it well written and
compelling. The author takes the reader into some rather dark
places without being overly graphic. Beneath a Buried House is
one of those novels that keeps the reader turning the pages right up to
the very end. If his first novel is as suspenseful and intriguing
as this one, I definitely will be seeking it out.