A Wry Combination of Gravity and Gamesmanship

Near the end of Steve Leshin’s relentlessly lively Murder by the Numbers, detective Joshua Oates makes one of his many wry observations: “The blood from the wound spilled on his chef’s costume enough to form a pattern that reminded me of a map of Italy.” While Oates is always in the thick of trouble, he constantly buoys the narrative with stoical, macabre comments, such as “I walked out and decided the coroner was better with dead people than live ones.”

The death of an old friend, Roger Astor, and a missing package kicks off this novel set at the opening of the prohibition Roaring Twenties of New York City. Oates and readers encounter gun runners, mobsters, Bat Masterson, Damon Runyon, and a colorful cast of characters. Jack Dempsey even makes a memorable barroom appearance. But what really charges the novel is a wonderfully urbane and slippery villain in Adrian Maillot DeSharde, accompanied by his amusingly brutish henchman Bruno. DeSharde stretches the limits of Oates’s resourcefulness and resiliency, giving Murder by the Numbers an intriguing combination of gravity and gamesmanship.

Indeed, this novel is quite the page turner, featuring a protagonist in Joshua Oates that we care more deeply about with each passing novel.