A WELCOME MURDER

Fiction

Losers hating Steubenville

A WELCOME MURDER
By Robin Yocum
256 pp. Seventh Street Books

Reviewed by Eric Petersen

Journalist turned writer Robin Yocum is back with his fourth novel (A Brilliant Death is also reviewed on this site). That book was a haunting, heart-wrenching murder mystery set in a once great Ohio steel mill town.

A Welcome Murder has the same setting, but it’s unlike anything the author has written so far – a comic mystery with an undercurrent of tragedy and featuring alternating first person narration from several characters who all knew each other in high school.

Johnny Earl, the main character, begins the novel by introducing the story of how in 1989, he became the prime suspect in a murder not long after returning home to Steubenville, Ohio, following a seven-year prison sentence. Once a great steel mill town, Steubenville is now a decaying shell.

In high school, Johnny was the most popular boy – a good student and star baseball and football player who dated the homecoming queen, Dena Marie Conchek, now a married woman whom he still pines for. A narcissist used to being adored, he has trouble coping with his fall from grace.

After landing a position on the Pittsburgh Pirates, his mostly unremarkable rookie year and entire baseball career was suddenly derailed by a blown knee. Back home, his old high school friend Rayce Daubner got him hooked on cocaine, turned him onto dealing, then set him up for an FBI sting.

Now, after serving seven long years in federal prison, Johnny’s out and home again, and Rayce has been murdered, brutally gunned down. Naturally, Johnny, overjoyed at the news of Rayce’s death, has become the prime suspect in his murder. But Johnny wasn’t his only enemy. In fact, Rayce Daubner was the most hated man in town.

We next hear from Sheriff Francis “Fran” Roberson, who dragged his family from their comfortable life in Minneapolis to his hardscrabble Steubenville hometown so he could be the sheriff. He has political aspirations – he wants to be President – but after an FBI informant is murdered in his town, the smallest misstep could derail his political career before it even begins.

A close friend of Johnny Earl’s, Fran knows well the history between Johnny and Rayce. He doesn’t believe that Johnny killed him, but with the feds breathing down his neck, he has no choice but to bring his old pal in for questioning.

Allison Roberson, Fran’s wife, absolutely hates Steubenville, which she describes as “a dingy gray city that is dying a slow death.” She wants to get out as soon as possible. She doesn’t believe for a minute that her husband could be President, but being Governor is a definite possibility. She’s determined to stand by her man and help him get there – even after she catches him cheating with his old high school crush, Dena Marie Conchek.

Matthew Vincent “Smoochie” Xenakis got his nickname because of his abnormally large lips. He spent his high school years being savagely bullied by Rayce Daubner. Too weak and pathetic to stand up for himself, Smoochie is still bullied – by his coworkers. The ultimate loser, no one in town respects him. Somehow, he managed to marry the high school homecoming queen.

Dena Marie Conchek Androski Xenakis hates her husband’s guts. A nymphomaniac practically since she started puberty, marrying Smoochie Xenakis was the latest in a long list of bad decisions. There’s nothing she’d like more than to be rid of him and in the arms of her true love Johnny Earl, but because Smoochie is a kind, caring man who treats her like gold, the guilt would destroy her if she left him. If only he had a spine.

Speaking of Johnny Earl, things go from bad to worse when he’s visited by his old cellmate – a deluded, psychotic, hulking white supremacist whom Johnny had conned into protecting him in prison. Now the man calling himself General Himmler is expecting Johnny to make good on his promise to give him nearly $500,000 in hidden drug money to fund an Aryan “republic” in Idaho.

Meanwhile, Smoochie Xenakis becomes a suspect in Rayce Daubner’s death when it’s revealed that he’d confronted Daubner after learning that his wife had been sleeping with him. Rayce beat Smoochie to a pulp, but when he becomes a suspect in Rayce’s death, Smoochie gains something he never had before – respect. Respect from his coworkers, the town, and most importantly, his wife. Then the real killer is arrested – or so the authorities think...

With its alternating points of view driving the plot, A Welcome Murder is like a Rust Belt Rashomon, though it’s ostensibly a comedy. I say ostensibly because there are few real laughs. I get it; the characters are all small-town losers who’ve made a mess out of their pathetic lives – let’s laugh at them. Johnny Earl is the only likable character.

To be fair, the writing is excellent, and author Robin Yocum does a good job building suspense, but the surprise twist falls flat, and even at 256 pages, the story starts to drag. The strong regional flavor of the novel is more of a liability than an asset – this reviewer, an upstate New Yorker, couldn’t connect with it.

If you have a rainy day to kill and you like mysteries seasoned with comedy, you could do worse than A Welcome Murder. You could also do better.

Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com