Genesee Slough Murders, The-Jack Vance outline for a novel

Genesee Slough Murders, The-Jack Vance outline for a novel

"The Genesee Slough Murders" was written in 1966 and is a 25 pages long outline for another mystery novel involving Joe Bain, a likeable, competent sheriff in a rural imaginary county in northern California.  The Genesee Slough Murders: Outline for a Novel was first published in 1994 in The Work of Jack Vance: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide.  It is currently available in the Vance collection titled Wild Thyme and Violets and Other Unpublished Works by Spatterlight Press.

Although this has been referred to as "an outline for a novel," it is much more than just an outline.  It is more of a Joe Bain mystery novelette with some of the chapters left as summaries.  It appears that Vance was going to expand the story into a full novel or at least a novella.  Despite its brevity, the story has a beginning, middle and end, although the resolution and ending seems rushed.  It has some interesting characters, an appealing setting, some Vancian humor, and a snappy dialog with enough intrigue to engage the reader. 

Joe Bain is the clever but down to earth sheriff in the fictitious northern California county of San Rodrigo that has a long levee running through it and seems very similar to San Joaquin or Sacramento counties which are listed as being nearby.  Bain and his seventeen year old daughter, Miranda, live together in a small house in a rural setting near the levee.  Another character we have seen in other Joe Bain novels is the news reporter, Howard Griselda, who is self-serving and often a troublesome to Joe Bain, whose police work he frequently criticizes despite Bain's stellar performance. 

Bain initially investigates a local home burglary which he cleverly and efficiently solves.  Next he is involved with keeping the peace at a protest rally on the levee where hippies in trees urinate down in protest while other demonstrators on the ground attempt to block a bulldozer from knocking over the trees.  The roots of the trees are endangering the levee, but public opinion is divided between those who want to protect the trees and those (especially the farmers and local newspaper) who want to protect the levee.  Joe is encouraged from both sides to make arrests and can't seem to please either side.  Soon after the protest he receives a report of a car crash in the slough with a dead woman and baby in the car. 

Two days later three people are shot and killed in their homes in separate but probably related incidents.  Joe investigates an irascible old man who lives on a houseboat and has been shooting at water skiers with a gun with the same caliber as the murder weapon.  One of the men killed had a previous run in with one of the hippies, named Dakota Slim, so Joe also visits him and is "oinked" at by one of the other hippies.  Joe is warned about this hippie when he is told, "Don't fool with him," says Dakota Slim.  "He's trained in yoga." 

The Genesee Slough Murders had the potential of being one of Vance's better novels.  I did like and was fascinated by the story even though it is only partially completed.  It will probably appeal, however, mostly to dedicated Vance fans rather than the general public or mystery readers.  I rated it a 3 "liked it."