Death and the Good Life

How was Hugo as a murder mystery writer? Excellent, in my view. While teaching at Montana, Hugo served with excellent mystery writer James Crumley, and the latter may have provided some impetus and inspiration to Hugo. 'Death and the Good Life' is a quick-paced read, one filled with the veridical wisdom we have come to appreciate so much in Hugo's poetry. While weaving an intriguing mystery, Hugo's characters leave us with several memorable, if not haunting, lines: "As long as we can keep the working classes under surveillance, we will survive" (74); or, "... and it was like a lot of other American towns -- junky. The usual monuments of something that may, given the peculiarity of history, come to be called civilization" (128); while lines like "We sat and looked at the ocean spilling all its secrets to a world that didn't care" (134) remind us of his poems, 'Beachthieves' and 'Alki Beach.' In sum, Hugo's only novel is full of enough action and surprizes that grip the reader's attention right through to the surprizing end.

Toward the end of his life, Montana poet Richard Hugo wrote a detective/mystery novel that features a detective who is the antithesis of the tough, clipped speaking, hard drinking, noir detective so common in the American detective story. Al "Mush Heart" Barnes is a loveable, poetic, common man, a man with an eye for a good looking woman and a skill for solving murders. Barnes has moved to Plains, Montana in his retirement from the Seattle Police Department, and works as a Deputy Sheriff. Suddenly, two men are murdered by axe and Barnes' detective work takes him to Kooskia, Kamiah, and Orofino on Idaho's Clearwater River and then to the Portland metropolitan area, where he uncovers truths about an old murder, new murders, and some of his close friends. If you happen to enjoy Richard Hugo's poetry, his unmistakeable voice drives this novel and his lyrical writing and philosophical observations make this book an aesthetic delight.