Playful romp in this cozy mystery

Upstairs, a Jim Otis mystery novel by David Benjamin

Title: Upstairs, a Jim Otis mystery novel

Author: David Benjamin

Publisher: Last Kid Books

ISBN, Price: 979-8994639009, $20

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I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I started reading Upstairs. The novel launches immediately into a scene with two schoolboys fighting—one boy bullying the other, whipping him with a tree branch. The local police chief Jim Otis intervenes, perhaps a little dramatically, and the bully runs off, but not before threatening to sue Otis for police violence. Otis, the reader quickly realizes, is the kind of man, and the kind of police officer, willing to bend the rules when needed—or simply when his own sense of justice requires it.

This thread of the police chief’s willingness to bend the rules is a theme that runs throughout this sometimes comical “cozy” mystery, a mystery that involves rural politics; a nostalgic throw-back vibe of small town American culture that may be set in the modern-day midwest but feels genuinely like it could be set thirty years ago; a coterie of close friends, a romantic side-kick, and a smart, sassy daughter who involve themselves in police work in ways that might not fly if the mystery they solve ever made its way into a courtroom; the supernatural; and eccentric, arcane knowledge about taxidermy, mummification, and Egyptian lore. The result is a wonderful, playful romp and an extremely satisfying read—along with unexpected twists and turns into the delightfully and hilariously macabre.

After the initial introduction of two main characters—Riley the bully, and Jim Otis, the police chief—Upstairs drops us into Riley’s storyline. Riley’s a bully, but he’s also curious, and he ends up exploring the one place in a small town he shouldn’t go—the upstairs apartment of an abandoned building. Stepping inside, he finds no floor where he would expect it. Falling endlessly through a dark cavernous tunnel, getting cut by sharp objects, he falls onto the body of his missing father. (Note to readers, and to the author: it would not surprise me if Riley, and the mystery of his missing father, returns as the plot of a future novel involving Jim Otis, particularly since the unlikely duo form an endearing bond over the course of the novel. A young boy who seems thoroughly unlikable at the start of the novel turns out to be a vulnerable boy who simply needs more love, support, and adult guidance.)

Dazed and confused, wondering if he’s just discovered that his father was murdered, Riley wanders out of the building, unsure of what he just saw. As readers, we, too are unsure what we were just sucked into. The cozy mystery novel we were able to settle into has taken a completely unexpected turn.

Despite his own disturbing experience, Riley is nothing if he isn’t a scientist. He has to find out the truth behind what happened to him and so he embarks on a series of experiments. The laboratory? The second-floor apartment of the abandoned building. His subjects? His unaware, perhaps naïve, classmates. As each one emerges from their own terrifying experience, utterly unlike his own, Riley asks one question: “What did you see?” He soon discovers that each person who enters the building comes face to face with their own greatest fear. And once the police chief is called in to investigate Riley’s pranks on his students, he too comes face to face with his own most lurid, grotesque fear—something similar to what he experienced when he was much younger and experimented with drugs.

At this point, the mystery novel takes a new turn. Trying to find out what exactly is happening in this building, and why, leads Otis, and his rabblerousing crew of friends, lover, daughter, and Riley, into the search behind the curse that hangs over this building—and the search for a body they’re told they must find to lift the curse. They don’t know that there is a body to be found, but they search nevertheless. What seems like a wild goose chase ends up having merit, and they uncover a decades old crime that nobody ever knew had happened. Not only do they solve the crime, but in the process, the story weaves in and out of Otis’ past and present relationships, including his present romance.

Upstairs is the latest in a series of mystery novels featuring Jim Otis. The novel is peppered with references to previous adventures, offering just enough information to whet the appetite for more. You won’t be able to read just one.