There are some books that I want to like. That’s usually the case when I find new authors who are trying to build some great characters and a great series of books. Steven Womack’s Music City Murders series has shown promise, so I kept sticking with it, despite the fact that I grew frustrated with some of the stories. His main character, Harry Denton, is a former reporter who decided to try his hand at being a private investigator. I’ve attributed some of the problems I had with the stories to Harry’s inexperience. There comes a point, though, where Harry needs to grow a bit. Way Past Dead was not the book where that happened.
Down the hall from Harry’s private investigator office are two songwriters who have been trying to hit it big in Nashville for a while. Harry’s not a fan of country music, but he’s willing to support his friends and goes to see them play one night. The lead singer is the ex-wife of one of his friends. Rebecca Gibson is about to hit the big-time, leaving Slim Gibson in the dust. That is, until she is found brutally beaten to death the following morning.
Slim is arrested for the murder, and his songwriting partner asks Harry to find the real killer. The evidence against Slim is pretty damning, but Harry doesn’t believe his friend is guilty despite that. To top things off, Harry’s girlfriend, the City’s coroner, is being held hostage in her office by some religious fanatics who don’t want her doing an autopsy on their leader’s wife.
I had a hard time liking Way Past Dead although I did like the characters themselves. Rebecca Gibson was interesting as someone who has tried for years to make it big and hasn’t really sold her soul to do that. The more Harry digs, the less he comes up with. She hasn’t really wronged anyone, so there’s no motive other than a jealous ex-husband. Slim loved her, that is obvious, and his partner cares enough about him to do what it takes to see him cleared. They are good people caught up in a shady industry.
Digging into the music industry itself, it seems that everywhere Harry turns he finds corruption and betrayal. It’s a dog-eat-dog way to make a living. What Harry learns does ring true, it’s his actions that are hard to digest. His idea of investigating is to drive around in his car until something drops in his lap. And it does, all too often. There’s no real investigating on his part. To top it off, at one point he bullies a secretary who is on the fence about whether or not to help him, instead of appealing to her better nature. By the end of the book, I liked Harry less than I did at the beginning.
Then there’s the whole side-story about the cult-members holding the coroner’s office hostage. I don’t know why this had to be included. I kept waiting for there to be a payoff that tied into the murder, but there wasn’t. Was it just a plot device to keep Harry separated from his girlfriend? There were a lot of better ways to do it. The way that is wrapped up, with Harry being the hero and the police looking like buffoons, felt ridiculous.
I’m not sure if I’ll continue this series. I kept hoping that the characters would develop more and grow in logical ways, but so far I’ve had to deal with Harry making the same mistakes with an ex-girlfriend and ex-wife, and now thinking being a private investigator means driving around in his car until something hits him. I was hoping it would get better if I gave it a chance, but three books in, it’s only gotten worse.
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Categories: Book Reviews
The odd thing about Womack and his career is that he IS an experienced writer in both literature and screenwriting; he teaches screenwriting at the Watkins Film School in Nashville, and his novels (unlike my stories) are released through major publishers. You’d think he’d know something about story arcs and “growing” a character from one story to the next. (If there’s one good thing about Tom Clancy is that Jack Ryan gets promoted in CIA and beyond, and his character evolves without seriously turning his back on his basic principles. And, still puzzling to me based on your review, the Harry James Denton series is a best-selling one. I don’t know how many books are in it, but surely, somewhere along the road from Book 1 to wherever the series is now, the protagonist grew into his private eye role, and maybe learned how to improve relations with women?
I think it’s 8 or 9 in the series. I know people on Epinions who write better characters than Womack does. It’s really sad that someone like this can get attentions while others languish.
Not sure yet if I’m going to continue or not. I came across the series when my daughter was living in the area so I thought it would be fun. She’s not living there anymore and I’m not crazy about the characters.
It doesn’t sound like Womack’s series is as good as he and his fans think it is. If you’re several books in and the protagonist hasn’t evolved in a meaningful way, I don’t believe it’s worth it to stick to that Harry Denton James series. (Of course, there’s always a possibility that the series does get better as it moves along. But if Harry didn’t learn anything from Book 1 and is making the same mistakes or not growing emotionally…I’d say, “Move on to a better series or standalone book.”