SUSPENSE FICTION
Greg Lynch
Black Rose Writing
Paperback, 978-1-61296-697-7 (also available as an ebook), 350 pgs., $19.95
May 2016
Billy Clayton, Dallas city councilman possessed of state senate aspirations, has a problem. The Cotton Bowl is scheduled for demolition to make room for a new sports complex, part of a bid to bring the Olympics to the Metroplex. Carino Sporting Venues, a company belonging to one of the mob families of New York City, wants the contract. The family has sent James Garelli, sadistic mob muscle, to Dallas to persuade the vote in favor of Carino. As it turns out, Billy Clayton is so very blackmail-able.
Clayton calls upon Howard “Don’t Ask How” Garrett, local political fixer and Whataburger proprietor, to help him secure the necessary majority vote of the city council in favor of Carino. Their plan goes dangerously and hilariously wrong when Garrett loses three quarters of a million dollars in bribe funds, and the money is found by Allison Kerry, a perpetually broke college student with law-school aspirations, working two jobs to get by, with a ne’er-do-well brother and a four-year-old nephew in need of a heart transplant.
Plain Brown Wrapper by Greg Lynch is smart, entertaining crime fiction, a blend of suspense and political intrigue. Everyone, good guys and bad guys alike, is working an angle.
Lynch’s protagonists are well developed and sympathetic (surprisingly so concerning the supporting characters) with compelling motivations. Kudos are deserved for Allison, a particularly well-written woman. Lynch’s antagonists — crooked politicians, crooked cops, crooked preachers — are less complex, sometimes devolving to cliché, and therefore less interesting, motivated mostly by greed.
Dallas itself is a character in this novel. You’ll feel the August sun as if you’re right there amidst the giant Suburbans in the “sucking quagmire” of rush-hour traffic on LBJ. And the book deserves special mention for its creative use of brown recluse spiders, fire ants, and a tent revival, as well as a running gag involving aloe vera.
The dialogue is realistic, flows smoothly, and is frequently funny. When good ol’ boy Billy Clayton meets Yankee enforcer James Garelli:
“What’s the deal, then, Jimbo?”
“James.”
“Jimmy, then.”
“James.”
“Jim?”
The plot of Plain Brown Wrapper is original, convoluted, and fast-paced, with many a twist and multiple subplots. The cast of characters is large and diverse, and each is integral to the narrative. There’s a lot going on here, but Lynch skillfully weaves his many disparate plot threads and connects these characters to each other in such a way that Dallas begins to seem like a very small town. Lynch makes good use of local history, current events, and recurring issues.
Plain Brown Wrapper is quite a circus and has great fun playing with our assumptions while leading to an unexpectedly satisfying conclusion.
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