Shadows In The White City: An Inspector Alastair Ransom Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

This is a historical mystery set in Chicago by an author who obviously doesn't know Jack ... er, stuff about Chicago history. Consider this passage:

"Still ... we have to cover the bases, boys."

"Cover the what?" asked Behan.

Logan explained, "It's an expression, comes out of cricket, and now that new game people are betting on, base on balls." [Page 153 of the paperback edition]

Now, since it had been made abundantly clear long before page 153 that the World's Columbian Exposition was going on in full swing, although rapidly coming to its scheduled end, this exchange of dialogue must be dated to September or October 1893. Considering that the Chicago Cubs (ironically established under the name of Chicago White Stockings) started in 1874 and became founder-members of the National League in 1876, ending their inaugural season as the pennant winners with a 52-14 record, the cricket reference and the strange unfamiliarity with baseball terminology jangle--to say the least! (And don't forget that Thayer's "Casey at the Bat" had been a continent-wide hit since 1888.)

The jangling just goes on and on. The head of the Police Department is repeatedly called the Chief rather than the Superintendent. The sub-title of the book is "An Inspector Alastair Ransom Mystery". Considering that the rank structure of the Chicago force at the time consisted of a Superintendent, captains, lieutenants, sergeants and patrolmen, it's a bit difficult to see just where an "Inspector" fits. The plain fact that "Inspector" Ransom reports directly to the "Chief" (whom he despises) and to no-one else in the entire department is even more puzzling. No-one seems to work for Ransom, either, except for two other "inspectors" temporarily placed under his direction for the duration of a single investigation.

There are odd lapses of thought, suggesting a deplorable lack of proofreading and editing. My favorite is this: "Alastair, you have to remember our reality is an absolute three-hundred-sixty degrees from theirs." [Page 175] Not a trifling one-hundred-eighty, mind you, but a full three-hundred-sixty degrees--not a degree less!

"The hansom coach stopped, the two horses lifting on hindlegs, fearful." [Page 271] Once again, lack of knowledge or poor editing or both, for a Hansom cab was a two-wheeled, one-horse vehicle, while a Hackney coach--usually called a hack--had four wheels and two horses.

This sort of thing occurs throughout the book: the odd notion, for example, that a phonograph of the period would be capable of producing soft music to soothe nerves or to accompany a quiet meal, or Ransom's extraordinary lack of knowledge about the architecture of the so-called White City, or his amazing blindness with regard to that brand new civic wonder, the elevated railway.

But far more significant than all of these is the wholesale grafting of current ideas and attitudes onto characters living in the 1890s. Sheesh, the hand-wringing of various of the book's characters about the fate of the "homeless" would be out of place in a story set in the 1950s, which I well remember, and all but unthinkable in the 1890s. In those days--heck, even in the 1950s when I was a boy--people in general were far more hard-nosed and unforgiving than all but the most trogladytic individuals today. I can clearly remember when that nice, non-judgmental word, "homeless," shouldered aside the uglier terms of the past: unfortunates, derelicts, vagrants, skid-row dwellers ... bums.

Put the historical howlers aside to consider this book purely as a mystery novel, and it turns out to be a very strange mystery novel, indeed.

This book is the second of a series. It takes up where the first, "City for Ransom," breaks off. I mean that quite literally. "City for Ransom" does not come to an end. It merely stops. Pages 1 through most of page 88 of "Shadows in the White City" are entirely devoted to bringing the plot of "City for Ransom" to a resolution--I'll refrain from calling it a satisfactory one. That done, at the bottom of page 88, an entirely new plot begins--new crimes, new villains, new everything. It's almost as though one fine morning, author Walker sat down, looked at his manuscript and said to himself, "I'm tired of that, let's try something new."

What then of the second story occupying the back 250+ pages of the book? It's all right--not convincing in the least, but that's hardly a fatal flaw in a mystery novel.

This is a thud-and-blunder mystery. In "Inspector" Alastair Ransom, it has a thud-and-blunder hero. When I read about Ransom, I can't help but visualize him as that wonderful old ham actor, Victor MacLaglan, a real thud-and-blunder kind of guy. And, d'you what? It's a lot of thud-and-blunder fun. Forget the impossible Chicago Police Department; replace it with a corrupt County Sheriff standing toe-to-toe against Town Marshal Ransom. Forget Chicago; make Ransom's town a seedily corrupt suburb of Ankh-Morpork or Lankhmar or Far Carcosa or Wherever. And it's all kind of fun! When I get to the bottom of each page I want to know what's on the next, and the next, and the next....

Considering the innumerable historical clunkers and the downright weird plot structure, I ought to give this book two stars. Considering the fact that I'll undoubtedly snap up the third "Inspector" Ransom book on sight for the sheer, lurid pleasure of pulling it apart, I ought to assign at least four stars. Caught between these two extremes, I'll go with three.

The novel The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson was highly recommended to me. I erroneously purchased Shadows in the White City and immediately regretted doing do. The writing was choppy, the dialogue was weak and amateurish and there were so many historical errors that finishing the book was chore. It amazes me that Walker was able to publish a book with such a close title to Larson's on a similar theme. Make no mistake, this is NOT The Devil in the White City. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Robert W. Walker does a tremendous job conveying the spirit and atmosphere of a city emerging from its own shadows in his second Alastair Ransom mystery. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the novel is so incoherent that it's hard to care.

Rebuilding from the fire that nearly wiped it from the map and the history books, Chicago hosted the Colombian Exposition in 1894 - a world-wide success that ensured the vitality of the city for the hundred + years since. But dark deeds also occured as an influx of people from across the country migrated to Illinois that summer. Walker's mystery records some of these deeds, and ventures into some pretty dark territory while doing so.

Recovering from injuries sustained in the first novel, "City for Ransom", Inspector Ransom is shocked to discover the man accused of the murders featured in his first case is released from prison. He then decides to take the law into his own hands, and makes sure the villain meets a suitable ending at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

The book then abruptly switches focus, and Ransom becomes embroiled in a case of the missing daughter of a prominent Chicago citizen, while he deals with superiors who are out to disgrace him,gangs of homeless children, and an implausible romance with a woman doctor impersonating a man that even Ransom can't explain.

Ransom is not a likeable character, but more than that, the author injects action that doesn't make sense. More than once I was forced to go back and re-read a passage to find out what happened.

Which is a shame, because, at its heart, 'Shadows in the White City' has a darned good central plot that will have even the most jaded mystery reader nervously checking their windows. And there's a cast of characters that are individual and complex enough to propel the series into the double digits. But they are currently constrained in awkward plotting and semi-ridiculous situations. Fans of Erik Larson's 'Devil in the White City' will no doubt have their interest piqued by this novel, as mine was, but we deserve better.

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