The Old Buzzard Had It Coming (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
Not quite a 4 star listen as it dragged on a bit, but close enough. I had some issues with timing a couple of times, but that was fairly minor compared to the setting. The time is 1912, the heroine a mother of most of a dozen, Alafair, & the mystery is figuring out who killed a man that everyone thought better off dead, anyway. With so many willing & able, the mystery winds around opportunity & who had the means.The characters were well done, but what really grabbed me was the setting & how well it was handled. A common complaint of mine is that authors don't understand farm life, but Casey is an exception. In this time before the automobile was common, she handles transportation quite well. She also gives a pretty good feel for the amount of labor that was involved in keeping a home. It reminded me very much of Aunt Affie's, an old family friend who was of my grandparents' age who had a farm in the boonies. My mother used to drive a team of horses while helping Uncle Kendall. (There's a picture of her driving them while standing on their rumps around somewhere.)Best of all, the end of the book has a bunch of recipes, all of which were quite authentic sounding to me. Since I listened to them, I can't swear to it, but the cobbler & cornbread recipes sure sounded just like those I make based on recipes from Mom & my grandmothers. I only keep bacon grease in my drippings jar & keep it refrigerated as Mom taught me. (The dogs get the rest on their kibble.)Since everything seemed so real, I wondered how much of this was based on reality. Apparently it's a common question & Casey has answered it to some extent on her website here:http://www.doniscasey.com/?page_id=530When I started this book, I thought I'd really want to read the next & soon. Unfortunately, it dragged on a bit too long, so I'm no longer in a rush, but think I will get back to the series at some point. I'd certainly recommend reading at least this one. There's no sex, cussing, & only a little bit of violence, so it should be suitable for anyone.
I'm not going to lie, after the cover art, my expectations were not high for this book. Luckily, the novel itself is much better than it would appear. Alafair Tucker was a nosy, friendly mother in a classic detective story setup. It's refreshing in an era of 'the game is afoot' to have a character with a more personal stake taking the detective role. Something that personally pleased me was Casey's characterization of the numerous children in the novel. Often, I find writer's having children all be little clones of each other, or otherwise just behaving very strangely for their age. In The Old Buzzard had it coming, the children all seemed to have distinct personalities and actions that matched their place in the family. For about eighty percent of the book, I was honestly very impressed with the mystery. Several suspects had reasonable motives, and the finger of blame hovered over each of them in turn. (Nonspecific spoilers following.) It's the eighty percent is surprisingly strong that makes the tail end of the mystery so disappointing. I've got nothing against supernatural elements in novels, but the inclusion of a 'ghost' towards the end really cheapened the entire experience for me. A second read found no foreshadowing for it, and there were other ways that the scene could have played out that would have worked to full effect. For those who like to play the 'figure it out' game when reading mystery novels, I'll warn you now: give up. The final discovery is made by chance, and while there were some small details that could be interpreted as hinting towards the twist, it felt very slapped on. Alastair, while entertaining, ultimately did not do full justice as a detective. For a dollar, this was a pretty good read. The pacing was a little slow, but the characterization was excellent, and the plot leading up to the climax is pretty great.
What do You think about The Old Buzzard Had It Coming (2005)?
The title caught my eye, but I didn't have great expectations for it. I think I picked it up because there was an endorsement by Tony Hillerman on the dustjacket. I finished the book in two evenings, and thoroughly enjoyed it! It evokes a not-so-distant time and place in the early 1900's that my admittedly older parents lived through. People had to make everything from scratch, wash their clothes by hand, and had large families to help with the chores. The narrator is the mother of a large brood of children who helps to figure out who killed the nasty next door neighbor. I thought it was well-plotted, believable, and memorable. I look for more from the same author, who indicated that the book grew out of her own family lore. There are also a few mouth-watering recipes at the end.
—Maureen
4+ stars. Engaging historical mystery, far better than the low number of reviews here might suggest. Set on a farm in Oklahoma 100 years ago, the novel introduces an amateur sleuth, a farm woman and mother of 11. A real SOB neighbor gets murdered and it could have been anyone who knew him, for to know him was to loathe him; our heroine has to figure out who did it to help out a daughter. The mystery is fine, but the details of cooking, socializing, animal care, and courting of the era were what kept me riveted. I've researched these matters extensively myself and found not an error or anachronism here; moreover she brought that research to life for me in seamless ways. I'd love to read the rest of her novels in the series.
—Zora
Well, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I bought a book, make that an ebook, with such a cheesy cover. Course it was inexpensive and lot's of people liked it, so, anyway I bought it.Now, I buy lots of books, mysteries, classics, feel good, feel bad, you name it, I ain't fussy but I do like a good cover and this one just don't have it, so to speak. So, how did I come to read it? Well I got so many books I got a random picker and whatever get's picked I read, so I don't spend all my time debating about what comes next.Well, I have to admit being sorely disappointed when my randomizer fell on this one, but once I make a plan I stick to it, and the way it turned out ..I'm glad I stuck to it.Cause, while I started it with a bit disdain, I turned out liking it pretty well. Seems to me, this Alafair was a good sensible woman, raised right and she was raising her children the same way. What I'm trying to say is she grows on ya, even if you've read classics like me, and I ain't just talking no Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island and The Three Musketeers either. I mean like, Dostoevsky, Trollope and Edgar Rice Burroughs, good people like that. So, anyway if you want to find out how a sensible woman goes about solving a murder where anyone could of done it cause nobody liked the guy, while raising a passel of kids, well, you might want to ponder a while on this one.Cause, I reckon you'll like it, despite the cheesy cover.Anyway, that's all I got to say.
—Francis
