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Gay restoration artist Elliott Smith is back in this third mystery involving murder and the lottery. Caesar’s Fall brings together hustlers, con-artists, rare stamp collectors, and $59 million for a case that only Elliott—and his ghost side-kick, John—have any hope of solving.
Bruno Caesar wins the lottery and buys a condo in Elliott Smith’s building. It’s not long before Bruno confides in Elliott about all of the headaches that winning the lottery has brought into his life. Everyone hounds him for money, and it’s hard to tell legitimate investment opportunities from the false deals that are thrown at him by hustlers and con-artists. Elliott tries to counsel Bruno as best he can, but he can’t fully protect him from those with nefarious agendas—including his financial advisor, a shifty man named Walter Means, and a strange man Bruno simply calls “Sensei.” And it’s not long before someone throws Bruno from the balcony of his apartment.
Soon, Elliott begins to smell Old Spice (Bruno’s preferred aftershave) in unexpected places. It seems that Bruno is trying to tell him something about his death. John, on the other hand, is having a devil of a time communicating with Bruno’s spirit because he’s in that chaotic stage right after dying. When Bruno’s lover, Ricky, tells the police that four inverted Jenny airmail stamps worth about $2.5 million are missing, it only adds to a very long list of suspects.
It takes an awfully long time for Bruno’s murder to happen, and, at first, I couldn’t figure out what the mystery would be. Then, when Bruno died, my heart sank into my stomach, and I realized that the “getting to know Bruno” stage of the story was a viable part of the plot. I had grown to like sweet, vulnerable Bruno so much that his death hit me hard, and I wanted his murderer brought to justice.
At the same time, I found it clever and refreshing that the ghosts don’t have direct contact with Elliott Smith. He has to work extra hard to solve a case, while relying on John to contact him in his dreams and convey messages and information from the deceased, who are still embroiled in trauma from their unexpected demise.
Author Dorien Grey seems to pride himself on not having high-speed car chases or things blowing up in his mysteries; instead, he prefers a methodical approach, which he manages to make interesting enough to keep a reader enthralled until the last page—and Caesar’s Fall, with its endearing characters and puzzling crime, is his best yet in the Elliott Smith and John mystery series.
Caesar’s Fall takes you into a world unlike any you may have encountered in a mystery, and that alone makes it a must-read.
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