Introduction
The St. Paul Conspiracy, written by Roger Stelljes, was published on May 1st, 2010, by Roger Stelljes himself. This book was a gift from my aunt. She’s always sending me new books that she thinks I’ll enjoy, and she has yet to be wrong. As a matter of fact, I have read some of Roger Stelljes’ books before - his Tori Hunt series based in Manchester Bay - and loved them. While I do prefer the Tori Hunt series to The St. Paul Conspiracy after the first read through, I did still enjoy reading this book, and I would recommend it to fans of the mystery and thriller genres. Before continuing, I will recommend reading the book before this review, as the Thoughts section will contain spoilers.
If you want to learn more about Roger Stelljes and his upcoming projects, you can check out his website https://www.rogerstelljes.com/, and follow him on social media @rogerstelljes.
Plot
The St. Paul Conspiracy is a third person, dual perspective murder mystery set in St. Paul, Minnesota. Told through the eyes of detective Mac McRyan and the mysterious murderer he’s hunting; a violent game of cat and mouse reveals the connection between a string of murders plaguing St. Paul.
Thoughts
I’ll be honest, getting into this book was difficult for me at first. I had just come off of reading a lot of fantasy and romance, and I had even more in a pile on my desk, waiting to be read. A new author always means a new writing style as well, and though I historically love Stelljes’ work, I was already in somewhat of a reading slump both during and after The Sun and The Star. However, I stayed patient and kept reading, and I was rewarded for it, as I really did enjoy this book.
I love reading mysteries, especially murder mysteries. I can’t get enough of the satisfaction that comes with solving a particularly tricky puzzle. It requires logic and attention to every seemingly insignificant detail, and a good mystery makes a second read-through almost more satisfying than the first because everything is viewed through a new lens. I enjoy making predictions as I read and seeing which ones pan out. For example, I assumed that the death of Mac’s father was going to tie into the larger story as a part of the conspiracy, but it ended up being just another building block making up Mac’s character. I was also incredibly suspicious of Lich for most of the book, but he turned out to be exactly as he appeared on the page. Helen - who should have been much more obvious to me than she was - was only clear to me right before she was confirmed to be the mole within the station. Occasionally, I have more luck with this, but my favorites are the ones like these that take me by surprise.
The pacing of this book was slightly inconsistent to me. It began with a murder for hire told from the killer’s perspective, which was a fantastic hook - it’s a stylistic choice I’ve seen from Stelljes before, and it’s one I greatly enjoy. Unfortunately, the perspective shifts to the detective’s perspective, and we are granted a lot of exposition dumping that feels oddly cliche to me. Policing is the McRyan family business, but Mac wanted to become a lawyer instead. He went to law school, got married, and started a business with his wife. After a family member was killed in the line of duty, he felt an obligation to join the force. This causes discourse between himself and his wife, which ultimately ends in a divorce. Later on, the killers got an exposition dump of their own, but theirs was more to give the scope of the motive for their crimes and the means of executing them (pun somewhat intended). The pacing picked back up not when Claire was murdered, but when Senator Johnson was. From then on out, every death seemed to be followed by a time jump, which I didn’t mind. Sometimes, I find abrupt jumps to be jarring, but in this instance, it felt like it kept the pace moving swiftly.
Something Stelljes does well is write both smart protagonists and antagonists. The cat and mouse chase is so much more interesting than irritating this way. Even when we finally figure out who the murderers are - which happened sooner than I was expecting - every move seems to be the right one to make. Everything was also very carefully premeditated with a near flawless follow through. Even then, the protagonists are so incredibly intelligent that they suspect who the criminals are long before they have the appropriate evidence to prove their intuition correct. One moment in particular that stuck out to me was the casual mention of the Cross files because at that point, the reader would already know they were significant, but the detectives don’t. It’s thrilling as opposed to frustrating.
One more note I want to make is on character dynamics, as they were very well written. Some of the family conversations oddly felt the most awkward, but the interactions between the different officers (I especially loved Chief Flanagan) were hilarious. Their banter was organic, and it seemed as though those conversations were happening between close friends. I felt the romantic aspect was welcome but not wholly necessary, so while I didn’t feel those interactions were as genuine, I was also not overly upset about it.
While I found the story to be interesting, and the characters to be well-written, the pacing early on and my personal preferences made this book difficult to invest in off the bat. Because of this, I have to give this book a 7/10.
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