It was like having Christmas in August for me as the FedEx
package arrived with the 2nd of the Antarctic Murders Trilogy by Theodore Jerome Cohen for review. I had finished his first novel, Frozen in Time: Murder at the Bottom of the
World, and anxiously awaited the completion of his sequel, Unfinished Business: Pursuit of an Antarctic
Killer, as appropriately titled there were strings left dangling at the
close of the prequel which formed an ending open for interpretation. Dr. Cohen claimed it was the influence from
friends, family and fans which had encouraged him to continue this amazing
adventure mystery series by making it into a trilogy.
My initial concern was to determine whether or not this
sequel could stand on its own with respect to a reader picking up and enjoying
this book without having knowledge of Frozen
in Time. My conclusion is you need
to read the first book to thoroughly enjoy this novel. Although a synopsis of characters and
references to prior events are developed and brought forward, the true
adventure – the chilling cold of the Antarctic; the spectacular death of a
character by being eaten alive by an Orca while seal hunting; the nauseating roll
of a ship traversing the Drake Passage; the twists of events leading up to Unfinished Business is best when savored
in sequence. Obviously, to best
understand the depth of character development into the soon-to-be-released third
and final book would further suggest this prerequisite reading.
The relentless pursuit of the truth beneath a series of
deaths and events beyond reasonable circumstances by an investigator brought
fourth his instinct that all is not what is told to him. At one point the sleuth says to his colleague
about a suspect, “I think what he’s saying is laced with lies! He remembers small details much too
well…details he gave me without hesitation. His story is too pat. It’s almost
as if he had rehearsed it in his mind many times. The captain will tell me the truth when it
comes to everything he thinks I already know or can determine for myself. Everything else will be a lie!” This fuels the detective’s passion for
getting to the truth and unveils the cat-and-mouse nature of the narration of
the novel.
A slight deviation in style from his first book in the
series, Dr. Cohen had eliminated his “signature” of having an abundance of
footnotes – in fact there are no footnotes -- as I found it was a revealing way
he dichotomized his truth from fiction. Unfinished Business is extremely
entertaining and although there is death, murder, deceit and greed, having the
spoils of cash, gold, and valuables from a bank vault robbery stashed in a new
refrigerator still in its crate and in possession of the Chilean Navy for safe
keeping provides, in my opinion, a bit of a comic relief to the seriousness of
the characters’ plight. After all, who
needs a refrigerator in the Antarctic anyway?
Unfinished Business is an enjoyable and tantalizing book written by a character within the story in real life. I have found reading the work by Theodore Jerome Cohen to be the most enjoyable way to experience the Antarctic without having to put on a down parka. Now, once again, I am anxiously waiting to see what happens in his final novel in this series as there is still Unfinished Business!
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