- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1 edition (Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312290462
- ISBN-13: 978-0312290467
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.6 x 2.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,677,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Fugitive King
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12 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Fun and clever mystery
5 Jan 2003
Format:Hardcover
Simon Shaw has achieved some notoriety as a "forensic historian"; that is, a history professor who has a knack for solving really, really cold murder cases by examining them from a historian's perspective. Now a convicted murderer who has read about Simon escapes from prison and takes Simon hostage. He demands that Simon investigate the decades-old murder for which he is serving a life sentence. He did confess, the convict says, but the confession was beaten out of him.
After this exciting opening, Simon manages to get the guy to give himself up. Nothing much happens for the next 70 pages or so as Simon half-heartedly looks into the matter while dealing with his shaky relationship with his non-committal girlfriend, Julia, and his university students desperate for passing grades. But after reading some old newspapers and talking to a couple of people, he decides something about the 1958 murder is out of whack. And since it took place near his hometown of Boone, North Carolina, and since he needs to get away for a while, the old murder is a perfect excuse to pay a visit to his relatives.
The plot doesn't really get rolling until about halfway through the book, but it didn't seem to matter too much. The characters are engaging and amusing, Simon is likable and very human, and the novel has a sharp sense of place that makes me homesick for my mother's cooking. The family relationships have a ring of truth to them that makes this book a fun read, and the solution to the mystery was satisfying and clever without being outlandish.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Couldn't put it down...
21 Jun 2003
Format:Hardcover
I picked up this book to pass a few minutes, and wound up unable to put it down. The characters were varied and well-presented allowing them to all fit comfortably into the story. The setting, the Blue Ridge Mountains, is an area full of legends and stories that boosted the storyline. All in all, I read it in one day and wish I had another in the series to start right now. It's one of those books where the characters are so well-done you don't want to lose touch with them.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
delightful amateur sleuth
14 Sep 2002
Format:Hardcover
Over forty years ago in the North Carolina Mountain town of Boone, Roy Freedman was courting his landlord's daughter Eva Porter. When he proposed to her, she refused saying her parents would disown her if she married a Mulingeon. Roy was arrested after the family found a lot of blood in the area where Eva was last seen.
Roy confessed to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He was in a minimum-security prison, had a lot of privileges and even worked in the governor's mansion. Roy risked everything he had by walking out of the mansion and holding Professor Simon Shaw at gunpoint. He tells the professor he was forced to confess and wants Simon to find out what really happened to his beloved Eva. Despite his doubts, Simon is drawn into the man's story and after Roy surrenders to the law, the professor decides to find out what really happened forty years ago.
THE FUGITIVE KING is a delightful amateur sleuth novel though why Roy chose the professor rather than a pro remains questionable. Still the engaging tale stars a lovable protagonist who is very much in touch with his feelings. His sensitivity is the reason he decides to help out a man who held him at gunpoint. The support cast consists of a bunch of amiable eccentrics, the kind of people who live in a rough and ready mountain town.
Harriet Klausner
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