Traverse City Record-Eagle

Books

December 6, 2008

Local writers pen adventure

By ELIZABETH KANE BUZZELLI

Three local writers have published books, one celebrating a young man's adventures in the Upper Pennisula after World War II, another about a 1979 ex-Marine's adventure in China, and one in which famous mystery writers are invited to a university to be honored but instead die one by one.

Born in 1934 north of Iron River in the Upper Peninsula, Arlen Curtis Matson has captured his teen years after World War II in a book of short stories, "The Adventures of Anderson."

Along with his friends Bryce, David and Gordon, Curtis Anderson goes rafting on Spring Creek, gets trapped in an abandoned iron mine, learns some hard lessons and gets a dose of religion from some Amish friends.

As a 12-year-old, Anderson deals with classmates who scorn him and friends who challenge him. He is a young man with the physical problems of all teenagers -- from oily skin to thick glasses. His determination to impress family and friends leads him to make a 90-mile bike trip from Ironwood to Iron River to spend the summer with his grandmother. When robbers intrude on his ride, he finds he is honored for a lot more than simply his lonely bike trip.

Some of these stories connect to others, making them more a section from a novel; others stand alone. Either way, the book attempts to show a path for a young man to follow.

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Robert Underhill, of Leelanau County, has written a satire of the mystery called "Death of the Mystery Novel." The story turns the tables on a cast of famous mystery writers and skews them with murderous plots.

When the nominal head of the University of Michigan English Department decides that sales figures equate with excellent writing, a number of writers known as "best sellers" are invited to deliver speeches to the outraged faculty of the university.

The first is flattened by a fallen snowman. The second is drugged and dies from out-of-date medication. The third, allergic to bees, is stung to death. There were only a few left who would come to Ann Arbor for the dubious honors awarded. Each who comes, dies. The murderer lurks. The suspects slink. The cops skulk.

In this "roman a clef" in which the reader searches out pseudonymous famous writers -- Stephen King becomes Dennis Duke, Sue Grafton is Lou Saffron and P.D. James is L.B. Somes -- you might find yourself preferring the deaths of some of the awful faculty members. The book is fun for the guessing games and the use of literary allusion.

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"Tainted Treasure," by Buzz Harcus, is the second in his series of adventure novels involving Harry Martin, an ex-Marine corporal who served in China after World War II until the Communist takeover of China in 1949.

Martin is again aboard the Swedish grain carrier Otto P. Nurad. Martin is on his way back to China, on a search for a cache of black market money hidden in the Marine Corps barracks in Tsingtao, China.

The quest for treasure won't be an easy one. People die along the way. Two decaying bodies are discovered at Shantung University and Martin's life is complicated by South China Sea pirates boarding the ship he's on, sending him swimming in the cold waters. Following a shipwreck, the treasure Martin's been seeking quickly becomes tainted for him. Too much blood and tragedy.

Harcus lives in northern Michigan. He enjoys crewing aboard a tall ship, the replica 1850s schooner Madeline, sailing the Great Lakes. He will be signing his book Dec. 19 at Horizon Books.

Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli can be reached at ebuzzelli@aol.com.

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