A way with widows: A Carl Wilcox mystery

Carl Wilcox #11

by Harold Adams

A dead man on a widow's stairs puts Carl Wilcox in search of answers as to the ways of widows...and his ways with them.

Genres: Mystery

178 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

BORN 1923

Reviews

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carl Wilcox, a tramp painter and World War I vet, is based on author Adams' uncle, an itinerant painter who tramped the Upper Great Plains during the Great Depression, seeking both a livelihood and a palliative to the boredom that would infest his life if he tried to manage his parents' South Dakota hotel. With experience as an MP before his dishonorable discharge for striking an officer (to protect a Frenchwoman), and as a lawman before his arrest for cattle rustling (at a woman's request), the observant, laid-back, tough yet sensitive Carl would have been a perfect role for Gary
Cooper or Alan Ladd (the laconic drifter that wanders into town, solves the
crime, romances the heroine, and wanders out again). In A WAY WITH WIDOWS, Carl is called to Red Ford, North Dakota, by his married sister Annabelle. She says it's because Aaron Feist, husband of her close friend, was found stabbed to death on the stairs in her next-door neighbor's house; but even Annabelle has secrets, and Carl soon discovers her fear that her older son, his teenage nephew Hank, may be suspected of the murder. But Aaron isn't the only suspect: there's Stella, the feisty
widow; Gene Fox, Aaron's partner and Stella's lover; Darlene, the next-door neighbor; and Frenchy, who wanted to take over the leadership of Aaron's dance band. Driving his Model T around the sere landscape of dustbowl North Dakota, Carl watches and questions, putting the puzzle of Aaron's murder together piece by piece.

[jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Most women are more than men ever imagine."

This was okaaaaaaaaay I guess? I finished it in one sitting and I already forgot the things that happened in the book. It was entertaining to say the least. But it was only 150 pages or so, I didn't really have high expectations for it because it was predictable.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Carl Wilcox
SETTING: Small town in South Dakota in the 1930s
SERIES: #11 of 16
RATING: 2.75
WHY: Carl Wilcox is a sign painter and sometime PI who has been asked by his sister to help clear her friend and neighbor of the charge of murdering her husband. The little details of the 1930s are nicely rendered, but the book is far from original. Almost all of the books in this series share setting and plot elements. Small town, Carl the outsider, Carl bedding the hottest woman in town. This is the last one for me.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short book about a man from South Dakota that goes to North Dakota in the 40's (are you snoring yet) at his sisters request to absolve her neighbor of a murder. It's hard to guess whodunnit but it's a strange ending, seems to lurch to a stop. Interesting characters though and I get the feeling that the main character is in some kind of serial. That I would not mind reading, as the main character is interesting. It's just that the story that surrounds him in this one, isn't.

[Kathryn McCary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carl's sister calls him in to help clear a friend of hers accused of murdering her husband. A slim, spare book, but with an American gothic affect unusual in the Wilcoxes. Red Ford, North Dakota is a very slightly more swinging metropolis than many where Carl has operated, and it translates into a slightly lusher, and darker, feel to the action.