A Rollicking Literary Murder Mystery Based On William Blake’s Characters & Ideas Updated To 1970s San Francisco

Book Blurb:

A seamless melding of (i) the intricate plotting of Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose,

(ii) the side-splitting humor of John Kennedy Toole in A Confederacy of Dunces,

and (iii) the fabulous world of William Blake.

In 1977, Ickey Jerusalem, San Francisco’s golden-boy poet laureate (based on Blake), is found dead in a locked, first-class toilet on an arriving red-eye flight.

Ded Smith, a desperately unhappy, intelligent philistine with a highly developed philosophy to match, is called in to investigate the poet’s death. Thus begins a series of hilarious encounters with the members of Jerusalem’s coterie (updated amalgams of characters from Blake’s work).

Ded soon realizes that to find out what happened, he must not only collect his usual detective’s clues but also, despite his own poetically challenged outlook, get into the dead poet’s mind.

Fighting his way through blasphemous funerals, drug-induced dreams, poetry-charged love-making, offbeat philosophical discussions, and much, much more, he begins to piece together Jerusalem’s (Blake’s) seductive, all-encompassing metaphysics.

But by then, the attempts to kill Ded and the others have begun.

Before Ded’s death-dodging luck runs out, will he be able to solve the case, and perhaps, in the process, develop a new way of looking at the world that might allow him to replace his unhappiness with joy?

His Review:

Icky Jerusalem is found suffocated in the restroom of a 747! Could this have been a suicide? He seemed to be a little distraught with his decision to cease his life’s work of crafting metaphysical poetry, but would that have caused him to commit suicide?  And how could his hands become tied behind his back? Nobody on the transcontinental flight noticed anything unusual in first class!

Being a poet laureate is a daunting responsibility. How does one continue to write prose when the karmic juices are not flowing? Ah, but there are certainly distractions in life that can fill the creative voids. One is the lovely Beulah who had been a professional female wrestler prior to developing hysterical blindness. Icky was her doorway to life’s experience through his magnificent verses. She was more than willing to repay his protection and kindnesses with gifts of her own.

Ded Smith is an Insurance Adjuster whose primary goal is to ferret out insurance claims that are suspect or fraudulent. The $20 million dollar policy taken out just prior to the death of Icky was his next assignment. Icky had a reputed fortune of nearly $350 million, so why take out a $20 million dollar life insurance policy on himself payable to the lovely Beulah?  The home office wants to deny the claim!

Twists and turns abound in this frolic of the San Francisco lifestyle. So much to deduce within this novel that waxes metaphysical contemplation or argument amid the prose. I am glad the author brings it to a satisfactory conclusion but it could be considered overly long to do so. 3.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Satire, Satire Fiction, Historical Mysteries
Publisher: Galbraith Literary Publishers Inc
ASIN: B0BJ7GDM7V
Print Length: 605 pages
Publication Date: February 6, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s): Who Killed Jerusalem?

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The Author: George Albert Brown, a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law, started as a hippie in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury and retired at age 40 after having co-founded a successful international finance company. Following stints thereafter as a humorous author (The Airline Passenger’s Guerrilla Handbook) and an angel investor in over a score of high-tech university spinouts, he built a catamaran in Chile and for more than a decade, cruised it across the globe with his significant other. Today, as a father of three grown children, a grandfather of four not-yet-grown children, and an involuntary lover of stray cats, he continues his peripatetic lifestyle by other means.

Who Killed Jerusalem? is the book that George, a life-long devotee of William Blake, had always wanted to write.

©2023 CE Williams – V Williams