Day of Wrath

Cincinnati is not only a city of social and political repression. Nope. The Queen City of the West also is home to several well-known and skilled writers of mysteries, best among them, Cincinnati Enquirer reporter, Jonathan Valin. This mystery, which I avidly read in 1995 and just HAD to then go visit the real sites mentioned in the book, even if they were set a decade earlier, tells of the disappearance of am attractive teenage girl from what was then Cincinnati's middle and upper middle class Jewish enclave of Roselawn. She ran away from her widowed mother's care one day following school, after spending the last few months going from well-behaved honor student to a disturbed delinquent. The detective, Harry Stoner, follows her trail from Roselawn to a disturbing and-for me at least-utterly unseen conclusion three weeks later. I could not put this book down.

"Day of Wrath," by Jonathan Valin, is a detective's story of his search for a missing fourteen year old girl. The girl's mother, Mildred Segal, hires Private Detective, Harry Stoner, to find her missing fourteen year old daughter, Robbie. Harry begins his search of the city of Cincinatti and uncovers the evil darkness that lies in Robbie's world, including the brutal murder of a young boy who ties into her life. In the span of a few days, Harry already accumulates a list of people who knew Robbie and little by little, he pieces together the puzzle of who Robbie was, why she left, and her connection with the murder of the boy. Along his investigation, Harry meets interesting and unforgettable characters, such as the sexually adventurous, Irene Croft, a helpful but tormented girl, Annie, and the ring leader, Theo Clinger. The characters will stay with you because of convincing portrayals. Prior to "Day of Wrath," I had never read a detective novel, but the book is an easy read and you will notice time flies by as Harry takes you with him on his investigation. Jonathan Valin is a very talented writer and I plan on reading anything else he has or ever will write. However, this book is definitely only suitable for a mature audience due to sexually explicit and violently graphic detail. Harry Stoner uncovers that people are never as they seem. No one could have realized what world Robbie Segal was a part of. She was part of a world that no child should ever be. The ending will leave you shocked and disgusted and leave you still wanting more.

P.I. Harry Stoner is a fine addition to the literary tradition of Phillip Marlowe, Travis McGee and Lew Archer. He inhabits the street of Cincinnati like a second skin. This story is one of the better ones in the series and it is also one of the darker ones. Stoner's adventures are nevr pretty, but they are well worth the ride for fans of P.I. fiction.

Jonathin Valin is one of the legitimate heirs of Ross MacDonald and detective Harry Stoner is very much in the mold of Lew Archer. Stoner rides the streets on Cincinnati in his Pinto, looking for runaways, armed with nothing but his righteous indignation and his Colt Gold Cup revolver. Harry's been hired by Mildred Segal to find her 14 year old daughter, Robbie, who has run away from their placid suburban home. Harry, who grew up in just such a place, knows all too well why kids flee Eastlawn Drive & mothers like Mildred. But then, while looking for Robbie's boyfriend Booby Caldwell, he finds the boy's corpse & suddenly, Robbie's disappearance looks more ominous. He backtracks the kids to a local guitar god/guru named Theo Clinger and a degenerate socialite, Irene Croft. But Croft is protected by a gangster, albeit a hyper-polite one, and Clinger has a Manson family style farm in Kentucky with armed guards. So getting Robbie back is not going to be easy. Valin hits all the right notes here & with similes like this one, the farm was "a fenced in field with a lumpy dirt access road cutting through it like a keloid scar", you know you're in the hands of a pro. Personally, I believe that this is the best of the modern private eye series. GRADE: A