Lucifer's Weekend

Digger #4: “Lucifer’s Weekend” by Warren Murphy. Digger, Julian Burroughs, is sent to Belton, PA to try to talk the widow, Louis Giillette, in accepting the accidental death clause of one million dollars in her husbands death, but she refuses, saying it would make her genius husband look like an idiot. She only wants the 500 thousand dollars, and forget the accident.  He had been electrocuted while attempting to change a fuse in a breaker box, when there are no fuses in a breaker box, and he’s an electrical genius and would have known that.  She and her daughter are the only ones in town who think he was murdered. Now Digger does also, and he’s willing to investigate. The usual tomfoolery and craziness, but a fun story, nonetheless.

Dead Letter

Digger #3: “Dead Letter” by Warren Murphy. Digger (Julian Burroughs) is going to Boston for his annual physical. His boss, and drinking partner, the night before asks him to look in on his daughter Allison at Waldo University while he’s there. It seems on her last visit she appeared depressed, and her father Frank Stevens found a newspaper clipping about the death of a bar owner in her possession. Why would his daughter be upset about a bar owner’s death? When Digger arrives he discovers everything is mixed up at the university, and there appears to be a chain letter circulating – a letter with a list of people to be murdered. Although Tamiko Funucci isn’t with him, he can still reach her in Vegas for help with the mystery. And he must solve it before Allison’s name is listed on the dead letter. This was the usual fun story not cluttered with a lot of people or too much mystery. The best of Warren Murphy is his dialogue, which is some of the best of any writer. A quick and fun read