Moving Targets: A Nebraska Mystery

A Nebraska Mystery #2

by William J. Reynolds

Jack Castelar, a wealthy midwestern banker, lies dead in the snow a few feet from Nebraska, the sharp-witted detective who begins with this first piece of a very strange puzzle to put together a solution and pin down the real killer

Genres: Mystery

311 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1986

About the author

Omaha native WILLIAM J REYNOLDS graduated from Creighton University and is the author of a very popular mystery series based on the exploits of a part-time detective and part-time writer named "Nebraska" who refuses to tell anyone his first name. Reynolds' six mysteries include The Nebraska Quotient, Things Invisible, and Drive-By. He is also the author of many short stories, magazine articles, and non-fiction. He is a member of the Authors Guild and a past board member of the Mystery Writers of America. He was named the South Dakota Author of the Year in 1987 and holds the Key to the City of Omaha and is an Admiral in the "Great Navy of the State of Nebraska." The author lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m beginning to like Nebraska. Not the state. The state seems like a sort of cultural and otherwise wasteland you’d never want to set foot into. Book one took place in the summer when it was a sweltering nightmare, book took place in the winter which is positively irredeemably Artic and not even in a picturesque way.
But the man, the protagonist of these stories, the Nebraskan named Nebraska (for cheap laughs of no other value) is actually a surprisingly enjoyable character. Partially like because he’s kind of a mess, but a self-aware one. Partially because he’s a writer so he has a sort of meta perspective on his detective work.
To be fair, his detective work isn’t really all that impressive. In this book he misses a major clue pertaining to a character’s psychological makeup, a clue that would have solved the case much sooner and had this book come in at the previously established much more manageable length of early 200s instead of this just over 300 pages. But Nebraska fumbles in an entertaining and at times pure amusing, the man fancies himself a comedian, fashion. He even has some game this time around, outside of just sitting around waiting for his flighty wife to flitter back into his life.
The case he’s working on in this book pertains to a well to do family whose patriarch is murdered and whose 23-year-old daughter disappears. It’s ever so slightly drawn out, but overall ends with a fairly decent plot twist and Nebraska once again succeeds, albeit as slowly as if he was dragging his ass through a thigh-high snow the entire time, which he kinda does, because you know, those Nebraskan winter are a doozy.
All in all, fun was had. Many thanks to Brash publishers for proving a free copy of the book for review purposes.

[Chuck Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed "Moving Targets" by Reynolds, the second in the Nebraska mystery series. This Nebraska is not the state but the name of a private detective/writer. This novel was better than the first, the plot was confusing but made sense. I also really liked it because the story takes place in Omaha, my home city. The character of Nebraska is an interesting one, he tells the story so we "hear" all his thoughts and better understand his motivations. He likes to compare himself to fictional detectives, usually he falls short. One area he says he falls short is sex appeal, but it seems to me he does quite well. He is sleeping with his on again off again wife in the beginning of the novel, he later has sex with a doctor he first met for a few minutes earlier that same day. All the time he is falling for an Omaha policewoman. The book was written in 1986, safe sex was not yet a concern, apparently. The story takes place in the winter, which I like as very few stories seem to take place in winter unless they have to do with Christmas. The case Nebraska is working on, he is having writer's block and needs money, is to locate the missing (only a few hours) daughter of the President of a smaller Omaha bank. The case takes a turn when the banker is murdered and the daughter disappears again. The case has many twists and turns of course but the resolution makes sense and is interesting. I recommend this novel for detective story lovers.