Vincent H. O’Neil

Cranston’s O’Neil Weaves a Tangled Web
Providence Journal-Bulletin Sunday, July 13, 2008

BY SAM COALE
Special to the Providence Journal-Bulletin

This third in the new series of Frank Cole mysteries by Vincent O’Neil, who lives in Cranston, is his best yet: breezy and seemingly simple at first, it unwinds into a complex tale of murder, betrayal, blackmail and skullduggery — all the ingredients of real estate deals in the panhandle of Florida in the 1980s.

Likable Frank Cole has come to Exile, Fla., as an exile. He lost his computer business to a pair of crafty businessmen, and Mark Ruden, a New York corporate lawyer and former college roommate, has helped set him up to make minimal money as a fact-checker for insurance companies and local law offices on a freelance basis, so that no one can attach his assets.

Denny Dannon, Exile’s chief of police and a father figure to Cole, asks him to look into a problem at the local bank: regulators are snooping about because the records of who rents safe-deposit boxes are in disarray, and could Cole track down the unidentified box-holders?

The search for the owners begins in earnest with Cole’s friend, retired naval petty officer Gray Toliver, helping him out. One odd incident has occurred: someone posing as Andy Freehoffer — we learn shortly that he’s dead — has opened the Freehoffer lockbox and perhaps made off with whatever there was in it.

Meticulously and in his low-key manner, O’Neil begins to weave his web. It seems that Dorothea Freehoffer, Andy’s widow, has been discovered dead at the bottom of the stairs at home. She may have given something to a neighbor to hide. Gary Patterson, the lawyer for Freehoffer’s and Brian Temple’s real estate business, is cruising the neighborhood looking for something.

Enter Vera Cienfuegos, a crackerjack, briskly intelligent assistant state attorney, who because of a mysterious complaint, kicks Cole out of the bank and becomes his foil throughout the novel.

What was in the lockbox? Who was David Carver, a young geologist who was involved with shady dealings regarding oil deposits off the Florida coast and disappeared suddenly? What’s odd about the purchase of the Ziegler property amid the collapse of the real estate market in the 1980s? What was the Oswego Oil Company from West Texas? And what’s with the strange map that suddenly surfaces?

O’Neil knows his craft so well as he fleshes out the folks and neighborhoods of Exile and surrounding towns that the plot quietly encircles you before you know it. His plain, direct style keeps things on the ground, solidly realistic, while his yarn builds momentum and ushers in startling revelations.

Swift, certain and crafty, Exile Trust sneaks up on you and never lets go.

samcoale@cox.net

"Another very good mystery that somehow manages to mix effectively elements of both the village cozy and the hard-boiled thriller."

Booklist review of Exile Trust 2008

Vincent H. O’Neil brings a wealth of life experience to his writing. He has served as a US Army officer both stateside and overseas, worked as a private consultant for a software development firm, and managed risk for a major northeastern bank.

A native of Massachusetts, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree from West Point and a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. After writing in his spare time for many years, he won the St. Martin’s Press Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Competition in 2005.

His award-winning book, Murder in Exile, is the first in a series of mystery novels featuring the character Frank Cole. The sequel to Murder in Exile, Reduced Circumstances, was released by St. Martin's Press on July 10, 2007. The third book in the Frank Cole/Exile series, Exile Trust, was released in June, 2008.