First, let’s get the sarcasm out of the way: Michael Stephen
Daigle, thank you so much for making my hometown the fictional home of
perverts.
Moonshiners, ok. Hoarders of hillbilly hound dogs and
double-barrel shotguns, fine. Setters of mink traps on property that may or may
not be posted, any day of the week. But pervs! Too far.
That said, The Weight
of Living, third in the Frank Nagler series, is as dark and delightful as
its predecessors.
Once again, Nagler is on the trail of a complex set of crimes.
With a New Jersey setting, Daigle’s books always include Byzantine political
shenanigans, pretty much the official state sport. It’s difficult to tell who
the good guys are, if indeed there are any good guys, besides Nagler, intrepid
newsman Jimmy Dawson and Nagler’s love interest Lauren Fox. It’s nice to read
about Lauren and Frank’s domestic semi-bliss this time around, too.
The town of Ironton is a thinly disguised Dover, complete
with an abandoned canal, decrepit factories, changing population, creaky downtown
and people passionate about preservation. Even an old
vaudeville-house-turned-movie-theater that screams The Baker! to those of us
who saw every Disney movie ever made there (and learned swear words in English
– our fathers only swore in Italian -- from the ladies room wall).
The Weight of Living travels
a little more far afield than the previous two books in the series. There are
scenes in Morristown and, as previously mentioned, the wild west of Morris
County, Jefferson. With a huge county park and the remains of the Ringling
Estate, including the elephant house, Jefferson is the best place in Morris
County to set a reclusive cabin and a nefarious family.
Daigle’s books are classic who-dun-its with psychological
depth, political subtexts and keen sense of history. Nagler is introspective in the manner of
Martha Grimes’ Richard Jury, but darker. His sidekicks, Dawson and Fox, are
only really fully fleshed out if you read the books in order, so if you haven’t
read The Swamps of Jersey and A Game Called Dead, do so. Then pick up
The Weight of Living. Especially if
you know and love New Jersey.
