"Down Home Blues" by Rob Kantner

Recently posted to Kantner's Web site, this new Ben Perkins story has Ben attending his great aunt's funeral in Georgia. After the ceremony, Ben's cousin Caroleen asks him to fix the toilet at the cabin she rents out. This he does easily, but he also becomes suspicious when the renters don't seem to be the "lovely folks" Caroleen describes.

I hadn't read a Perkins story in some time, but Ben's voice was instantly familiar. I'm glad Kantner is still writing about him. I found "Down Home Blues" a little long to read onscreen. Print it out and take your time with it, as Ben would.

"Fly Away Home" by Rob Kantner

Originally appeared in: Mean Streets ed. Robert J. Randisi. Mysterious Press, 1986.

Also available in: Trouble is What I Do by Rob Kantner, PointBlank Press, 2005.

This is the only Ben Perkins story to date to show Perkins from someone else's viewpoint—that of a businessman interviewed by Carole Somers and Perkins to build a defense for Carole's client against the charge of murdering her roommate.

The businessman's narration begins innocently enough. The reader is privy to his psyche, which is not clearly disturbed enough for murder until Kantner wants it to be. The businessman underestimates Perkins throughout, believing to the end that he's "beaten" him.

I'm always intrigued when authors show familiar protags from new perspectives. Though this story isn't in Ben's engaging voice, Kantner still shows enough of Parkins gathering clues to make a satisfying mystery.

"The Man Who Called from Tomorrow" by Rob Kantner

First appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. September 1986.

Also available in Trouble is What I Do by Rob Kantner, PointBlank, 2005.

A man calls from Guam asking for Gail. Ben Perkins tells the man he's dialed the wrong number. That night the same man calls back wanting to hire Perkins to find Gail in Cincinnati. Identifying himself as Paul Murray, he says Gail is his wife whom he left eight years earlier and now hopes to win back. Perkins is almost certain he's been lied to, but he's also overdrawn at the bank, so he takes the case.

Kantner takes full advantage of Perkins's being hired over the phone. It turns out almost none of Murray's story is true, and he succeeds in using Perkins to achieve goals that are likewise less than honest. By the same token, Perkins's accessibility, humanity, and everyman dilemmas are what distinguish him in a crowded P.I. field.

Trouble is What I Do collects 18 Perkins stories, each with an afterword from Kantner discussing what inspired him. Kantner was also kind enough to chat with DetecToday members last year. You can read the transcript here.