Terror at the Fair

Snap Malek Mystery #5

by Robert Goldsborough

It's the summer of 1949 and Steve "Snap" Malek has been assigned by his editors to cover the Chicago Railroad Fair. For three months this sprawling and lavish event will draw visitors to the showcase on the city's beautiful Lakefront. Malek, used to getting his headlines covering the gritty Police Headquarters, sees this as the first step in being put out to pasture. Deciding that a man's got to do what a man's got to do, he accepts the assignment, grumbling all the while.

However, violence has a way of finding the intrepid Snap Malek, even in this least likely of locales. Striking indiscriminately, a killer bearing a grudge against railroads in general, threatens to shut down the highly publicized and well-attended national exposition with a series of bizarre murders.

Before this reign of terror ends, famed filmmaker Walt Disney enters the scene with a theory about the killer, and Malek himself, bloodied and wounded, becomes a target of the madman’s wrath.

278 pages, Nook

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Robert Goldsborough is an American author of mystery novels. He was born in 1937 and grew up in the Chicago area. Although he worked for 45 years for the Chicago Tribune and Advertising Age, he first came to prominence in the 1980s with the publication, with the approval of the estate of Rex Stout, of his Nero Wolfe mystery Murder in E Minor. Written privately for his mother back in 1978, shortly after the death of Stout, creator of the Wolfe stories, the novel received a Nero Award.

Six other Nero Wolfe books followed from Goldsborough, all favorably received. However, more recently he has turned his attention to creating books with his own characters, beginning with Three Strikes You're Dead, a novel set in pre-war Chicago, and starring Steve Malek, a reporter for the Tribune.

Series:
* Nero Wolfe Novels by Robert Goldsborough
* Snap Malek Mystery

Reviews

[Richard J. Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Herrings and and historical clues provide an enjoyable read. Robert Goldsborough provides a colorful set of characters to populate this murder mystery set at a post-War Chicago Railroad Fair in TERROR AT THE FAIR. Snap Malek, a crime reporter for the Chicago Tribune is suddenly "exiled" from the Detective Bureau beat at Chicago Police Headquarters to the "feature writer" role at the 1949 Rail Fare. Snap wonders what he has done to offend his editors and expects to be put out to pasture at the conclusion of the summer-long Rail Fair. Until, that is, a series of seemingly unconnected deaths occur that suggest a sinister and perhaps unsettled mind at the center of things. Historic and fictional personalities come and go and by the end, the reader is enthralled by the complexities and challenges Snap Malek must unwind. An appreciative armchair detective must rate this tale as "Satisfactory."

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fifth "Snap" Malek mystery, which I read because I enjoy historical fiction. The character has become a bit stale, which may be why the Snap's boss at the newspaper has reassigned him from the crime beat to feature stories. You know the author feels the same, when there are a lot of references to past exploits.