Richard W. Browne Reviews

Added January 6, 2004

A Corpse Is a Corpse

Author: Richard W. Browne
Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
Available At: www.double-dragon-ebooks.com
Publishing Date: March 2002
Genre: Mystery
Format: Ebook download in PDF/LIT/Rocket
Price: $4.99
ISBN: 1-89484-111-5
Reviewer: Ayden Delacroix

There was a dead man in his chair and Jim Jepperson had no idea as to how the man had gotten into his office, much less been killed. He calls his best friend Ed Zernial and asks him what to do. Ed advises him to call the police and while they're discussing what to do, someone knocks on Jim's office door. It's the police.

The two officers read Jim his rights and put him in the car to take him downtown. Instead of taking him downtown, they head in a different direction. Jim begins to suspect the officers aren't really who they say they are and asks to see their badges. Unfortunately, their car is run off the road and they straight down a cliff.

Worried about his friend, Ed gets in his car and drives to Jim's office in time to see Jim being led away by two supposed officers. He follows them and is shocked to see the vehicle go over the edge. Bound to a wheelchair for most of his life, he nonetheless does his best to get down the hill to Jim. Managing to get to him, he is glad to learn Jim isn't dead, just unconscious. Which is more than could be said for the two supposed cops.

At Jim's insistence, Ed takes him back to his office. The two head inside only to find the dead man missing. All they can think is, "What the devil is going on?" As they search Jim's office, they find his computer has been reformatted and all the files from "P" onward are missing. When did an accountant's life become so strange?

As Jim and Ed begin investigating the theft, Jim's life gets stranger and stranger. First the junkyard owners act very suspicious, the employees of the Magick Cauldron are odd, not to mention Paige Colston, the wife of one of Jim's clients. Will the two best friends piece together the clues in time to prevent Jim from ending up like the dead man he found?

Author Richard W. Browne offers his readers a treat with his novel A Corpse Is a Corpse. A deftly penned mystery, I was unable to discover the identity of the villain and his motives. Mr. Browne brings everything to a dramatic climax, but it's the journey there that is the most intriguing. From Jim's best friend Ed to the employees of the Magick Cauldron to the villain's henchmen, unforgettable secondary characters and rich details add to this already wonderful mystery.

I was drawn into A Corpse Is a Corpse from the first line. However, I found the discussion with the two "policemen" in the second chapter a bit confusing; I was never sure as to which cop was speaking or exactly what they were discussing. It went back and forth like a ping-pong match and I was completely lost until the end of that particular chapter. Now that I've finished the story, most of that conversation makes sense, but it was still a bit disconcerting. All in all, I would heartily recommend A Corpse Is a Corpse to all mystery fans.

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