A Wry Combination of Gravity and Gamesmanship
Near the end of Steve Leshin’s relentlessly lively Murder by the Numbers, detective Joshua Oates makes one of his many wry observations: “The blood from the wound spilled on his chef’s costume enough to form a pattern that reminded me of a map of Italy.” While Oates is always in the thick of trouble, he constantly buoys the narrative with stoical, macabre comments, such as “I walked out and decided the coroner was better with dead people than live ones.”
The death of an old friend, Roger Astor, and a missing package kicks off this novel set at the opening of the prohibition Roaring Twenties of New York City. Oates and readers encounter gun runners, mobsters, Bat Masterson, Damon Runyon, and a colorful cast of characters. Jack Dempsey even makes a memorable barroom appearance. But what really charges the novel is a wonderfully urbane and slippery villain in Adrian Maillot DeSharde, accompanied by his amusingly brutish henchman Bruno. DeSharde stretches the limits of Oates’s resourcefulness and resiliency, giving Murder by the Numbers an intriguing combination of gravity and gamesmanship.
Indeed, this novel is quite the page turner, featuring a protagonist in Joshua Oates that we care more deeply about with each passing novel.
Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Murder by the Numbers by Steve Leshin is a historical murder mystery and the fifth book in the Joshua Oates Adventure series, preceded by Vengeance of the Ripper, Target of Fear, A Darker Shade of Greed, and The Killer's Code. As with the others, the protagonist is former police squad leader turned private investigator, Joshua Oates. Now in New York, Oates is thrown three hitches in quick succession: an envelope of cash, a ransacked office, and the death one Roger Astor, the latter both being not who Oates knew him to be and leading to suspicion that it wasn't a cut and dry heart attack and the blink and you'll miss it abduction of Madeleine Astor. Set during the 1920s Prohibition era and complete with Tommy guns and mafioso led by a French national, and with names like Hacksaw Hank, Nick the Nose, and Tony Two Times, Oates is roped back in as a government contractor to help solve the connected murder and arms dealing cases, neither of which are anything like they seem.
And the Academy Award for the best ancillary character in a book series goes to Bruno the enforcer! I think one of the areas that author Steve Leshin is most skilled in is the development of characters and this is as apparent as ever in Murder by the Numbers. With Joshua Oates, a reader has the benefit of the long game. He is, after all, the name on the book jacket. The same goes for those who share continuity between the stories like love interest Angie Lang. The characters that have to be developed on the fly are the most impressive, and antagonist Adrian Desharde and his right-hand Bruno are so exceptional that you almost care about them at first. Leshin throws some spanners in the works and a couple of red herrings, both the character and plot twists, and the narrative and dialogue suit the time period deliciously. Lovers of classic fiction will be tickled by characters that sound like they jumped out of a James Bond novel, like the triple barrel Germanically named Darla Von Hatteburg. Somewhere out in the afterlife, Ian Flemming is nodding in appreciation and saying, "Well played, Leshin. Well played." Very highly recommended.
