The story starts out in Greenhill, South Dakota during the Depression-era. In this book, Carl Wilcox is a sign painter that finds work in Greenhill. Wilcox gets hired as a "unofficial" investigator of an unsolved murder. The current mayor and local businessman, whose son had dated the dead Gen, whose alibi for the night of the murder, may have been purchased. As Wilcox becomes widely known in the small little town, he asks several of the kids and adults about the murder. Wilcox began to turn up all kinds of new evidence that was never looked at.

In mystery writing--as in all fiction writing--when you pull apart the hardcover buns, there should be a sizeable slab of conflict inside. Sure, depending on how the author or readers like it, condiments such as plot, characterization, and blah, blah, blah, can be added to enhance taste. But conflict is the "beef" of all fiction. Harold Adams' book has small meat.

The writing is tight, the history and scenic descriptions accurate and well-done, but everyone gets along. A stranger dies in the beginning, but no one is ever threatened again. The protagonist gets along with his wife, the local cops, the local residents, even the suspects. What's the point? There's no urgency. I only turned the pages out of curiosity to find out when something good might start happening. It didn't.

Okay. I'm exaggerating. The book is not that bad. Give it three stars. Lovers of pure whodunits may give it four. But for me this was no Whopper. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

As a fan of the Carl Wilcox series and having read all the previous novels, the author has done his readership damage by marrying Carl off! Part of the glamor of this series has been the sort of sexiness of a well-meaning, intelligent bachelor who solves murders in very interesting and creative ways in an era before today's technology. Carl has shown his interest in women through out the series and that idea of romance draws the reader in. As a female, his allure as a bachelor detective took me in -- always wondering about whether there would be a conquest or not. For me, the best Harold Adams can do is write out Hazel, Carl's wife, in some calamity that Carl can deal with and solve!

Harold Adams has written a tremendous series of books about Depression era bum/detective Carl Wilcox. This is not his best, but if you love the series and like Wilcox, the book is fun to read.

First time readers should start further back in the series. In this one there is no real "bad guy" to hate; Wilcox is married(!) and on his honeymoon.... this leaves setting and writing style as the major draws. They work for me, because I like the series, but would probably not sell a first time reader.

I felt that The Ice Pick Artist by Harold Adams was a major dissapointment. I felt their was a lack of characterization in the main character Carl Wilcox, we don't know what drives him to want to solve the murder of a young hotel visitor. I felt their were to many twists and turns in the story that it confused me as a reader. Adams also could have gone into more descriptive language concerning the setting of these small towns in the Midwest, as well as the characters in the book.

I'm not sure exacty what the author was trying to portray in this book. I didn't pick up on any particular train of thought where the protagonist, Carol Wilcox, was concerned. At one point, I almost lost track of the cast of characters, there were so many; and there didn't seem to be any real connection between this girl and Carl that would make him go traipsing all over the place trying to solve her murder. As for the murder storyline itself, it was somewhat adequate in keeping in line with the rest of the book. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure.

During the Depression, painter Carl Wilcox works at his family's Corden, South Dakota hotel because his father is ill. Three individuals, traveling separately, book rooms in the Wilcox Hotel. Lillybelle Fox is in Corden conducting research into the town's founders with an emphasis on Colonel Cutter. The next day, Lillybelle is found murdered and the other two guests (Murdoff and Olson) are gone.

Carl decides to investigate the killing by continuing Lillybelle's research in a hope that it will reveal a motive for murder. He quickly finds several people with an incentive for killing his guest and most of them start acting ugly towards the amateur sleuth. It seems that everyone has a secret, but especially wanting to keep quiet their clandestine past is a very powerful family with strong state-wide ties.

THE ICE PICK ARTIST is a superb historical regional mystery that brings to life the Depression in South Dakota. The who-done-it is fun and Carl is an intriguing character. Readers will taste the dust while driving all over the state in Carl's Model T. Harold Adams demonstrates why he is a Shamus Award winner with this tale that will have readers running to the used book stores for previous novels in the series.

Harriet Klausner