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Jimmy Flannery #9
Sauce for the Goose: A Jimmy Flannery Mystery Novel
Thursday night's political science class is pulling in an unlikely the teacher's a slick lawyer who wears $400 shoes, and the worst student is a mob henchman who nods off as soon as the lecture begins. Not that Jimmy Flannery is one to judge. What's this idealistic sewer inspector, Chicago ward chief, and new father doing at night school anyway?
He's getting an education in the finer points of the Chicago machine, where politics, patronage, and organized crime shake hands. Jimmy - a decent guy in a dishonest world - is familiar with his town's mangled grammar, its dirty contract deals, and the strange disappearances of those who become a liability. But night school is fast becoming a crash course in crime. First one classmate - the mob figure - dies in a suspicious mugging, and then the teacher, attorney Frank Vollmer, drops out of sight after promising Jimmy he'll take on a pro bono case.
Using his vast network of local connections both within and way outside the law, Jimmy weaves together a complicated picture that includes cheating spouses, suicide, and two disputed legacies. One involves a very well-off canine. The other, far more sinister, will determine who controls the city of Chicago.
He's getting an education in the finer points of the Chicago machine, where politics, patronage, and organized crime shake hands. Jimmy - a decent guy in a dishonest world - is familiar with his town's mangled grammar, its dirty contract deals, and the strange disappearances of those who become a liability. But night school is fast becoming a crash course in crime. First one classmate - the mob figure - dies in a suspicious mugging, and then the teacher, attorney Frank Vollmer, drops out of sight after promising Jimmy he'll take on a pro bono case.
Using his vast network of local connections both within and way outside the law, Jimmy weaves together a complicated picture that includes cheating spouses, suicide, and two disputed legacies. One involves a very well-off canine. The other, far more sinister, will determine who controls the city of Chicago.
- GenresMystery
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Robert Wright Campbell
34 books15 followersA 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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 12, 2019
Jimmy is back doing what he does best: being nosey and doing favors.
With this book at an end, there are only two books left in my series binge. I have to chuckle at how the series markers have been covered in the later books. From the start, there has always been an animal featuring at a key point in the story...and in the book title. The later books turn towards animal analogies, but hold onto the tradition. In this book, there was a more direct animal link in the B-story. Maybe the alternate title could be Teaching a Dead Dog New Tricks or something like that...though Campbell already used a dog in the title of the first book.
With this book at an end, there are only two books left in my series binge. I have to chuckle at how the series markers have been covered in the later books. From the start, there has always been an animal featuring at a key point in the story...and in the book title. The later books turn towards animal analogies, but hold onto the tradition. In this book, there was a more direct animal link in the B-story. Maybe the alternate title could be Teaching a Dead Dog New Tricks or something like that...though Campbell already used a dog in the title of the first book.
December 19, 2018
Jimmy Flannery is the Chicago ward chief and sewer inspector. He's now taking a night class in political science. When one of his classmates suddenly dies, Jimmy visits his many connections to try to learn what happened t0 his classmate.
January 27, 2020
The amateur sleuth in this series is a Chicago ward committeeman. Amusing.
August 20, 2021
Wonderful story and characters!
August 4, 2024
Jimmy Flannery books are always entertaining,. RIP Robert Campbell.
July 7, 2017
Campbell's Jimmy Flannery mysteries are altogether unlike anything else in the mystery genre, or at least unlike the classic 1950's private eye working out of a small office waiting for the next voluptuous blonde or redhead to sashay in and spin his head. Fact is Flannery is not even a private eye. He's a sewer inspector and ward leader for the 27th ward in old machine run Chicago. Flannery's got a cat's curiousity and a cat's nine lives as well. Leroy Brown may have been meaner than a junkyard dog but no one is as relentless as Flannery not even a junkyard dog. Campbell's brilliance here is turning the whole classic mystery genre on its head and recreating it in the form of a back slapping insider who just can't let go of a bone.
This particular edition of the Flannery saga may lack the kind of relentless action you might expect in a mystery novel. In fact, most of the book is Flannery jawing it up with one connection or another.
But what makes it all work and do hard to put down is the narrator's voice which is at one homespun and like that of the cheery guy you just met in the bar. It does start out with Flannery talking on about his domestic situation but that's really his manner of introducing himself. The real story is about influence peddling, the world of machine politics slowly coming to an end, the retirement of the old boss of bosses and his successors fighting over the spoils, a body, an illicit affair, and a fight over an old house and the dog that lives there.
Just don't go reading this expecting a classic shoot em up mystery with bodies falling everywhere and a half crazed blonde not knowing enough to walk away from the crime scene.
This particular edition of the Flannery saga may lack the kind of relentless action you might expect in a mystery novel. In fact, most of the book is Flannery jawing it up with one connection or another.
But what makes it all work and do hard to put down is the narrator's voice which is at one homespun and like that of the cheery guy you just met in the bar. It does start out with Flannery talking on about his domestic situation but that's really his manner of introducing himself. The real story is about influence peddling, the world of machine politics slowly coming to an end, the retirement of the old boss of bosses and his successors fighting over the spoils, a body, an illicit affair, and a fight over an old house and the dog that lives there.
Just don't go reading this expecting a classic shoot em up mystery with bodies falling everywhere and a half crazed blonde not knowing enough to walk away from the crime scene.
November 1, 2016
Always a great adventure with Jimmy. This book did fall a little flat for me... I don't think the mystery was quite as prominent in this installment.
One thing about this one though... Jimmy is taking an English class to spruce up his grammar, so throughout the whole book he is correcting himself. It's beyond annoying. Part of the reason I love this series is the local dialect. Meah... still 2 more in the series... still gonna read 'em.
One thing about this one though... Jimmy is taking an English class to spruce up his grammar, so throughout the whole book he is correcting himself. It's beyond annoying. Part of the reason I love this series is the local dialect. Meah... still 2 more in the series... still gonna read 'em.
March 30, 2009
I think I have a crush on Jimmy Flannery!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews