After reading a slew of stand-alone thrillers, broken only by Dick Francis's private eye series book Whip Hand, it was very refreshing to read the 1983 Edgar Winner, BILLINGSGATE SHOAL. It's the first in a series about oral surgeon and amateur sleuth Charlie "Doc" Adams. It also appears to have been Mr. Boyer's first novel, so it's even more of an achievement that he won the Edgar with it in competition with more seasoned authors.

When the book opens, we find Charlie and his wife at their cottage on Cape Cod. The surroundings, though lyrically described by Boyer, don't help Charlie's midlife crisis. He loves his wife, his two almost-grown sons are doing fine, and his career is successful, but there is something missing in Charlie's life. It has become boring.

Lying offshore from The Breakers, the Adamses' perhaps ironically-named cottage, is Billingsgate Shoal, where many a vessel has run aground. Charlie's binoculars spot a large boat, a trawler or dragger, aground with three men attempting repairs. Later that day, the vessel, Penelope, limps into port, where Charlie sees it just as he encounters Allan Hart, a friend of his son's, on his way out for some scuba diving. Curious about the Penelope, Charlie suggests that Allan take a look at her hull on the way out of the harbor. The next day, Charlie learns that Allan, an experienced diver, has been found dead.

Charlie's initial investigation is motivated by guilt -- he believes that Allan's death might have been an accident caused by tangling with the Penelope, and that he bears some responsibility. He just wants to track down the vessel's owner and get some peace of mind. But as this task becomes more and more difficult, he begins to suspect murder and other skulduggery. A traffic accident that breaks his wrist leaves him with a month of free time, and he uses it to pursue the case to its thrilling conclusion.

The plot of BILLINGSGATE SHOAL, while complicated with more than one set of villains, is believable and hangs together. The settings -- not limited to Cape Cod but covering much of Massachusetts -- are beautifully described and accurate as far as I could tell (I spent my college years not far from Concord, where Charlie lives). The characters, both major and minor, are multi-dimensional, and humorous dialogue and situations occur naturally throughout the book, giving some much-needed relief from the scary parts.

BILLINGSGATE SHOAL isn't a book that leaves you breathless, although there were many breath-holding moments of suspense. It's a mix of the traditional amateur sleuth mystery with the action thriller in which every aspect -- plot, characters, setting -- is done really, really well. I found it richly deserving of its award and will plan to read the rest of the Doc Adams series. ( )

Billingsgate Shoal is the first in Boyer's Doc Adams series. The book opens with Adams observing a strange boat stuck on Billingsgate Shoal. He later sees it coming into port and sends a scuba-diving family friend to check it out. The scuba diver later turns up dead in the water. Adams, thinking it is somehow tied to the boat, feel guilty. There begins his quest to find out the truth about the boat and, hopefully, to assuage his own guilt.

While the story of Billingsgate Shoal is a good one, I had a hard time believing in Doc Adams as a character. I mean how likely is it that a dental surgeon will stumble into a mystery of this size and complexity and make it through the other side. And then to go on to solve a series of mysteries? I just couldn’t get my head around it. It also just didn’t seem up to par with the other Edgar Award-winning novels I’ve read this year. Quite honestly, reading this book is partly to blame for my recent reading slump.

In reading Edgar Award-winning mysteries this year, I’ve found a few series that I would be happy to continue reading. Unfortunately, Boyer’s Doc Adams series doesn’t make this list. Of all the Edgar books I’ve reviewed, I am least likely to recommend it to others.

http://iubookgirl.blogspot.com/2011/08/review-billingsgate-shoal.html ( )