Dead Folks: A Detective Sergeant Mulheisen Mystery

The trajectory of marginal Detroit mobman Joe Service continues to leave a mess in its aftermath, the clearing up of which seems to be the eternal lot of Detroit copper Fang Mulheisen, now in his sixth appearance. In Deadman (1994), Joe was left in Montana, shot in the head. Here, still recovering from his coma, he takes off for Salt Lake City with his smitten nurse, Cathleen Yoder, who was lusted after by the female shooter in the previous novel. Joe and Cathleen become lovers, but his memory isn't as functional as his sex drive: he can't remember where his money is, and he has violent encounters with some large angry hoods from Tonga, whom he isn't sure really exist. Meanwhile Fang is falling hard for a rural woman in Montana, where he is still tracing Joe's part in previous killings. Jackson doesn't move this tale much beyond the plot of the previous episode, which at first might seem like a stumbling block for new readers. But the wacky richness of the author's prose eases such trifles aside. Jackson keeps control of his chaotic material, successfully pausing mid-narrative to linger on the diet-fixated life of a Detroit crime lord or detour to explore a weird car-selling scam. The big Tongans are in a nutso class all of their own. While none of this is perfectly resolved, at least the readers have a better handle on things than Fang, and especially poor old Joe, for whom the only sure things in life are his dogged survival, his powers with the fair sex and the sad fact that Fang will never give up the chase. (July)