Axel
Brand is the nom
de plume
of award-winning historical-fiction novelist Richard S. Wheeler. He
uses Brand for his crime/mystery series featuring Milwaukee Police
Lt. Joe Sonntag. The
Homicidal Saint,
the most recent in the series, is the first Sonntag novel I've read.
I have some catching up to do. (Incidentally, the 25¢ "price" on the cover is in keeping with the '40s look of the new Crossroads Press digital editions of the Lt. Sonntag series. The Kindle versions are $3.99.)
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The Homicidal Saint is
narrated in a lighter voice than the historical novels, which might
sound odd considering it opens with a man shooting his wife to death
in the basement of a Lutheran church during a potluck dinner. Lt.
Sonntag and his wife witness the murder along with the rest of the
congregation attending the dinner. The killer willingly surrenders.
He is polite and accommodating. He tells Sonntag and anyone who is
willing to listen that he killed his wife to protect others from her.
He claimed she killed their four children. The killer claimed his
wife was a religious fanatic who ruled the household while he spent
most of his time in a laboratory making false teeth.
Sonntag,
who is chief of detectives for the Milwaukee PD, enlists Frank Silva,
one of his best investigators, to help him determine if the children
are in fact dead. They learn one boy died of polio at age eight. They
locate a daughter, married and living in Arizona, who claims her
mother disowned her and sent her away when she reached adolescence.
Two brothers, however, are missing. The investigation leads Sonntag
and Silva to a mysterious “institute” where wayward boys are sent
to “have the Devil beaten out of them” and turn them into
God-fearing men.
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| Axel Brand (aka Richard S. Wheeler) |
I
especially enjoyed The
Homicidal Saint
because of its setting. I grew up in Wisconsin, as did Wheeler, and
felt right at home in the tableau. The story is set during the Truman
administration, a time I remember as a young boy. As Axel Brand,
Wheeler brings to this novel the same eye for detail and commitment
to accuracy as in his fictionalized histories.
Lt.
Sonntag is a believable honest cop from this period. He and his wife,
Lisbeth, who helps him think through his cases, are a loving couple
with heartaches of their own. Living modestly on Sonntag's meager
pay, their day-to-day concerns near the end of World War II will ring
true to any reader who remembers those years. The Sonntags lost one
son to polio and have another in the Navy. They're real people.
I
found The
Homicidal Saint
a welcome break from the heavier noir mysteries that seemed most
popular during that time.
