Unnatural Deaths
By Robert G. Fuller, Jr.
Dog Ear Publishing
$15.95, soft cover, 220 pages, 978-159858-897-2 (2009)
Robert Fuller was a lawyer in Maine for more than thirty-five years before retiring and writing this book. He practiced in the Augusta area which obviously aided him in understanding how Maine government functions. This novel is a realistic depiction of how law enforcement works, not only in Maine, but also in the federal system.
Salvatore Salvaggio, nicknamed the Squid, is the hit man for a mob family in New Jersey. Under orders from the head of the family, Don Corrado Ciccilino, he travels to Maine and murders Harvey Coburn. In making his escape, Salvaggio stumbles into a potential witness, Blackie Pelletier, and kills him too.
Harvey Coburn’s great-great grandfather built the Coburn Shoe Company and Harvey was the fourth generation to run it. It was initially a very profitable business but in the 1980’s and 1990’s it became cheaper for manufacturers to make shoes in third world countries. The company fell on hard times and before his murder, Coburn was attempting to sell the company.
Roland Casavant, Coburn’s police chief, is in charge of the police investigation into the killings. Casavant, a former state trooper and Marine, is dogged in his search for the killer. He soon teams up with detective Martin Counihan of the Maine State Police. When it appears likely that the murderer is from out of state, they receive assistance from the New York Police and the FBI.
The novel does a fine job of capturing the interworking of police agencies and following the various threads of a coordinated investigation. It also excels at developing believable Maine characters and mimicking how Mainers speak. Upon finding Blackie Pelletier’s body, Counihan asks Chief Casavant what he knows about Pelletier.
“About forty-five, maybe a bit older,” Casavant said. “Regular guy, works at Coburn Shoe. In fact, it was his shift supervisor who called the station to tell us he hadn’t shown up for work. Wife died five years ago, breast cancer. He has two kids, both boys, grown. Bobby, he’s married, coupla kids, lives down in Connecticut. He works for the aircraft factory down there. The other son, Gilles, he’s a priest, has a parish up in the County.” He was referring to Aroostook County, Maine‘s largest, in the Northeastern part of the state and bordering on Canada. Most people in Maine refer to it just as “the County.”
“Has a sister, Yvette, lives in town married to Ronnie Gregoire,” Casavant continued. “He runs the Irving station and the Mainway. Two brothers, Lionel and Laurent — Larry, he goes by, Lionel, he’s vice president at Coburn Distributors here in town — they’ve got the Bud franchise, wines, couple of imported beers, too. Larry is a big lawyer in Augusta. Gets in the papers a lot. You probably heard of him.”
I admit that I had few expectations for this self published novel. And if I wasn’t a Mainer myself, I might not appreciate either the dialogue or the deliberate care the author takes in describing the various phases of the police investigation.
Make no mistake: this book is not a thriller. But it is a vivid examination of diligent police work performed by convincing Maine characters. The novel is filled with believable Russian gangsters and it convincingly portrays their lack of morality. Juxtaposed to the dishonest mob are the decent, well-intentioned residents of a rural Maine community. It’s a culture that the author knows and skillfully portrays.
Buy it on Amazon here.
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