About book Octopus Alibi: An Alex Rutledge Mystery (2004)
This is the first of Tom Corcoran's novels about Key West photographer Alex Rutledge that I've ever read, and I came away both impressed and a little frustrated. I was impressed, most of all, with his sense of place. Corcoran finds so many ways, both big and small, to make the reader really feel what it's like to live in the Florida Keys, connected to the mainland by nothing but the thin thread of a highway on a series of bridges. I was impressed as well by his skill at drawing believable characters and giving them pithy and believable dialogue. And I was impressed too by his ability to spin a complex tale that keeps a reader guessing.However, I was ultimately a little frustrated with the way Corcoran ended the story. The main culprit turns out to be the one person I'd figured out early on was probably the killer, based on a clue that nobody ever investigated and which the killer was incredibly stupid to leave behind. The killer gets his comeuppance off-screen, so to speak, and in a way that requires a huge coincidence in order to wrap up the major subplot of the story. Bottom line is that I enjoyed reading the book most of the way through, and even found myself thinking about some of the characters after I was done. I'll definitely go back to read the others in the series now.
Reading this book set in Key West while here in Key West was really neat - it made the story come alive in a way that I don't normally get. After a few days walking around the island and biking on the streets, the details that Corcoran weaves through the book were like little secrets he was letting me in on.On the mystery itself, although it got a little confusing in the middle with three different crimes to work through, the ending was well-done and I couldn't put it down near the end, always a good sign for me.
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