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Book Review: Murder in the Grove by Michael Henry
I swear I was only going to read a chapter or two last night, but here I am at four in the morning just having closed Murder in the Grove by Ricochet’s own Michael Henry. Like the earlier books by Michael Henry I have reviewed (Three Bad Years, At Random, and The Ride Along), Murder in the Grove is a good, solid book and well worth reading.
The main character is Willie Mitchell Banks, whom we met in Michael’s earlier books. Willie Mitchell was a district attorney in the Mississippi Delta country. He had been in office in his rural county for nearly a quarter-century before retiring and moving to the big city of Oxford, Mississippi (population currently less than 25,000). By the time of Murder in the Grove, he has been living in Oxford long enough to be in good with the old geezers who play golf down at the country club each day, and it is there that the adventure begins. One of his relatively new friends asks if he will look into a murder that happened in 1962. At the same time, his successor as DA is having to bring a murder trial to Oxford in a change in venue due to the accused’s being too well known in their rural county in the Delta, making it impossible to impanel a jury. Willie Mitchell gets involved in both the current trial and in investigating the murder from long ago. And soon enough, more bodies are turning up all over the place.
Willie Mitchell Banks is a very relatable character. He has strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes he does smart things, and sometimes he does dumb things. This is not a novel about a superhero. It’s not a novel about a special forces guy or a secret agent. Willie Mitchell often carries a gun, but he’s no gunslinger. It’s a novel about a fairly regular guy who makes mistakes and can sometimes not see the obvious until his face is rubbed into it. It’s also a novel about friendship and relationships.
What else do you need to know? The total body count is about twelve, although four are dead before page one of the novel. Only two of the deaths are “on screen,” meaning in Willie Mitchell’s presence.
This is not a book fraught with tension. Yes, there is tension. When will Willie Mitchell figure out where his real problems are coming from? How will he get out of this jam? Are all the murders tied together? But it isn’t the sort of tension where you hate the bad guys with every fiber of your being and are waiting for the good guy to burst in the door. It’s a good level of tension. The main bad guy is a charming, old psychopath. He is bad enough and has been getting away with crimes for decades, in fact, for more than half a century. But he isn’t so bad that you hate the book for letting him live so long or bringing him into your brain.
Finally, it’s a book with a lot of poetic justice. As you may have gathered from my description of Willie Mitchell Banks, he is not a dispenser of instance justice one might find in action movies. When he is directly involved with justice, it is after a trial. But that does not mean that all the bad guys live to come to trial.
Published in Literature
@michaelhenry, I’m talking about you.
Thanks for the review. One more Kindle purchase for @michaelhenry
Yo, Arahant. Thanks very much for reading MURDER IN THE GROVE and for the kind words in your post. When I wrote my first Willie Mitchell Banks novel, THREE BAD YEARS, in 2010, which began life as a screenplay with Billy Bob Thornton a few years earlier, my goal was to limit the story and action to things that were realistic–things that could actually happen based on my experience as an elected District Attorney and trial attorney. Hence the low-key tension bubbling below the surface in the legal system, because in my experience, that’s the way things are in life.
I was also motivated to offer an antidote to the portrayal of District Attorneys as bad actors of limited intelligence in so many legal thrillers–stories where the criminal defense attorney is the underdog hero and law enforcement and the D.A. are the bad guys. Setting the novels in the rural South, where I’ve lived all my life, also gives me the opportunity to illustrate what I know to be true: there are good and bad people of all races.
This past May, I published my tenth novel, 5 STAR, about an all-star high school football quarterback who is murdered on an unauthorized visit to Ole Miss. I’m enjoying being a lazy bum for now, and not sure I’m going to write another novel. It’s hard, isolating work and requires fire in the belly. But, we’ll see.
Thanks again, Arahant. Now, you should get some rest.
And sometimes one gets stuck while writing one’s own book, and one has to read something else, which was why I was glad to have your book handy. If I don’t get some inspiration on finishing some of these last bits of Volume Three of my series, I may be reading 5 Star instead.
He doesn’t sleep. He waits.
And works.
I read the others, might as well go three for three.
There are more than three:
http://www.michaelhenryauthor.com/
Sure would be nice to see someone make these into a movie – the movies are terrible these days and a good old fashioned murder plot with no comic books or sci-fi would be novel (no pun intended)… Congratulations on your success!
As a native Mississippian, I think I should point out that Oxford/Lafayette County is not part of the Mississippi Delta – it is located in north/central Mississippi, east of the Delta region. The counties making up the Mississippi Delta are:
“The core counties of the Delta are Bolivar, Coahoma, Humphreys, Issaquena, Leflore, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tunica, and Washington. The counties of Carroll, DeSoto, Grenada, Holmes, Panola, Tallahatchie, Tate, Warren, and Yazoo contain alluvial deposits as well and have been part of the Delta’s human history.”
Source: https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/delta/
As a native to writing and reading, I think I should point out that the character, Willie Mitchell Banks, retired from a county in the delta to Oxford, as I said above.
Ya see, Jeff, when someone retires and moves to the big city, they sometimes have to leave the town and county they grew up in. If you read the book, which I do encourage you to do, you’ll probably need to read it a bit more closely than you’ve read my post to keep up with the characters and who is guilty of what.
And may I further say, 😜
I love reading series. Thank you for the recommendation. Which book is set first chronologically? (I am a sucker for buying the first book of a series.)
Three Bad Years. You can see them all at Michael’s Website, which I linked in the OP.
I was going to buy all ten of Michael’s books in paperback and they seemed a little pricey, so decided to look in used book stores, and oh my! @michaelhenry, have you looked at what your used paperbacks books are selling for? Apparently you signed some of them. Anyway, am still going to buy them new but will just have to wait for a few weeks. Who is William?
A penny for your thoughts, Kay of MT, though a penny would not go far in your noble quest to buy my books. To answer your questions, I have no idea what my used paperbacks are selling for, but I guarantee it has no relation to value. These are self-published through Amazon, and take my word for it, these will never be collector’s items. That said, here’s a suggestion: buy new paperbacks and sell them as “used” online for thousands, and we’ll split the net profits. William is my son who worked with me on three of the novels.
BTW, the books are not in audiobook format, but if you’re taking a long drive on those lonely Montana roads, call me and I’ll read one of the books to you.
Seriously, thanks for your interest. MH
I laughed so hard. Maybe you could convince @douglaspratt to give you a deal on producing an audiobook version for you.
Michael, my Dad was from Oxford and I still have extended family in the area. These are going on my TBR list! Arahant, thanks for the tip!
I just ordered it. I am getting so damn backed up by all of the books that I have ordered based on Seawriter’s and your recommendations!
Just wait until I finish my next one. 😜
You have a deal. $13 new, $20 and $25 used! Did I mention that I have over 1,000 books that I need to part with? And I never do. A couple of months ago I parted with about 40 of Andre Norton’s books and could kick myself. I always have to read the book again before I can part with it, then decide not to. I am currently re-reading the “Foundation” series by Isaac Asimov. Well, when I pass on and someone has to pack up the books, they will find some real gems.
Have you read any of Carl Hiaasen’s books? One of his best was “Skinny Dip” where a guy throws his wife off a cruise liner to kill her, only she survives the fall. He had forgotten she was a champion swimmer and didn’t know the tide would carry her back to shore. She then starts messing with his mind.
Unfortunately, I don’t hear well enough to listen to audio books. The hearing aids do nothing for speech recognition, of which I have problems with.