Thinning the Turkey Herd

Jimmy Flannery #4

by Robert Wright Campbell

Stated First Printing. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. Soiling to the edges of the book's upper page block. Rubbing to the head of the dust jacket's spine. A Jimmy Flannery Mystery.

Genres: Mystery

185 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 1988

About the author

A screenwriter who turned to writing novels. Many of his earlier books were published as by R. Wright Campbell but later works were credited to Robert W. Campbell or simply Robert Campbell. He also published one book as F.G. Clinton. For more, see his obituary in the Los Angeles Times.

Reviews

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jimmy Flannery is a Sewer Inspector by trade, a job that he has due to his role in the declining Democratic political machine in Chicago. The prior outings focused on Jimmy doing favors for the constiuents (so they remember to do a party-line vote at election time). This time around, politics takes a smaller role, as Jimmy essentially plays the role of a detective to get a jump on gathering information for a missing person in the hours before the police will pick up the case. The back half provides time for the Jimmy to wrangle through the city licensing / permitting / animal control departments for the B-plot.

A couple quick quotes:
--"I bend down to put the books of maps back on the chair where he can get to them. He picks up his pen. Life's about to go on in this office where time stands still. The only way anybody'll know I was there is there is that some dust'll be cleaned off the chair."

--"You can call me anything you like, just don't try to butter me. You'll find out that I'm a tough mouthful to chew."

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I discovered this book while researching for a library podcast. We wanted to finds something in the stacks that had never been checked out. This one fit the bill. We explored it in the very first episode (https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...).
Cut to 5 years later and I read it in time for the final episode of the All the Books Show. It was not worth the wait.

I haven't read any of the other books in the series and this was not a good entry point. The character work was the paper thin and the plot was pretty standard. I was hoping to find a new series to follow, but instead it earned it's reputation as part of our Lonely Hearts Book Club.
Here's the ep where I actually read it. https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...

[Sallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been on my TBR pile for years. I really enjoyed the mystery and Jimmy Flannery. Why did it take me so long to read?? Who knows. I think my sister recommended this author way back in the early 90s. Thanks Sis!

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Campbell sets his stories in the great city of Chicago, steeped in the world of patronage and favor for favor. Flannery is no detective, but he seems to always be stumbling on corpses and, when he does someone the favor of investigating the situation, more times than not there is some politician whose put out the word to warn him off.

Flannery is a sewer inspector and precinct captain and, in the Chicago tradition, he seems to spend more of his time doing favors than anything else. Some of the best scenes are when Flannery sets out to talk to a political connection and he learns whose leaning on who.

Like a lot of the Flannery mysteries, this one has a plot extremely reminiscent of old time paperback mystery novels. A beautiful model disappears and Flannery starts nosing around and trying to find some answers. On the way, he trips over a corpse, a retired madam, a lonesome salesman, a photographer and a well-connected politician. And this model might not be as innocent and pure as Flannery once thought.

Campbell does a great job of setting out the narrator's voice and placing this story in the neighborhoods of Chicago.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mystery featuring Jimmy Flannery, Chicago Democratic precinct captain and city sewer inspector who also dabbles in solving mysteries. In this one, he asked to find a missing woman and then her murderer. Nothing fancy here as Jimmy is pretty much a common guy who does favors for others in the Chicago political style.

The title comes from modeling slang refers to what happens yearly as large numbers of young women come to the city hoping for modeling careers. Over a period of months, the number is reduced as women are unable to become models. Thus, the "herd" is thinned. In this case, the herd is being thinned by murder rather than not being able to make it as a model.