Save the Last Dance for Me by Ed Gorman

This private investigator story features justice and a distortion of the Lord’s vengeance. No redemption. It’s number four in the Sam McCain series, set in the small fictional Iowa town of Black River Falls. It takes place in 1960. The book is crude in places, but also humorous. It pokes fun at several religions and especially snake handling Christians.

A minister drops dead during a snake handling service. And another minister is murdered. Sam McCain is a two-bit lawyer who also works as an investigator for one of the two judges in the area. Richard Nixon is coming to visit Black River Falls, and the judge, who is a friend of Nixon’s, wants the murders solved so the town doesn’t look like the hick town it actually is.

McCain is short, not really a tough guy. He’s the opposite of the noir private detective. What McCain lacks in physical strength and stature, he makes up for in sarcasm. The town is a hyperbole of a small midwestern town in the sixties. The book is loaded with twisted, distorted, and eccentric characters. The mystery takes several turns and has an exciting ending. Gorman’s writing is crisp and sharp, as always.

There is mild profanity. What I would have called R rated sex, but these days, more like PG 13. And the violence isn’t over the top – about the only thing not over the top in this raucous, somewhat raunchy, but fun book.

I’ll rank this one thirteenth for humor and story. For those that like clean fiction, this isn’t for you.

1. Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin
2. Love’s True Calling by Lori DeJong
3. Through Thorny Ways by Jennifer Q. Hunt
4. Book of Days by James L. Rubart
5. The Seven Day Resurrection by Chevron Ross
6. With Mercy’s Eyes by D.T. Powell
7. Justice by Jeff Hill
8. Already in the Kudzu by Hannah Hood Lucero
9. Dreamwalker by Carrie Cotten
10. The Last Wife by Matt McGregor
11. Loving the Rodeo Queen by Rebecca Reed
12. The Misadventures of Itchy Izzy by N.Y. Dunlap
13. Save the Last Dance for Me by Ed Gorman
14. Ranch Showdown by Tina Wheeler
15. The Unhired Hand by R.O. Lane
16. The Shocking Truth by Steve Rush
17. Daughter of Darkness by Ed Gorman
18. Burning Angel by James Lee Burke
19. Death in the Kremlin by E.J. Simon
20. White Gold by Michael E. Jimerson
21. Irresistible Impulse by Robert K. Tanenbaum
22. Line of Fire by Taylor S. Newport
23. The Longest Day by Terry Toler
24. Left to Die by Lisa Jackson

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