To Helvetica and Back: a dangerous type mystery by Paige Shelton
Helvetica, in case you didn’t know, is a font. The title is an obvious pun on “To Hell and Back”, but has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot of the story.
Clare Henry works in her Grandfather, Chester, ‘s store in the small town of Star City, Utah (Clare is not a Mormon and Mormons are mentioned only tangentially (and for some reason, not by name) when Clare, while describing the town and its environs, mentions that a group of polygamists had set up a compound outside town, and notes, “though the predominant religion in the rest of the state hadn’t been keen on the idea of polygamy for decades”, which usage just strikes me as kind of weird). The store, located on a street known as Bygone Alley, for the number of old-fashioned businesses located there (though I wonder if “Bygone” isn’t some kind of play on Harry Potter’s “Diagon Alley”), repairs old manual typewriters and pens, sells stationary and pens, and uses an old press that Chester built as a young man to repair books and do limited print runs. The business does well enough to support Chester and Clare, and provide at least a part-time income for Claire’s niece, Marion (Marion is a talented snowboarder, considered by most in town likely to go on to the Winter Olympics. Skiing plays a big part in the town’s economy although it’s summer at the time of the story so though everyone talks about skiing, no one actually does any).
At the start of the book, former author Mirabelle Montgomery drops off her old Underwood typewriter to have a sticky key fixed. Mirabelle no longer writes the stories that made her famous but she still uses her typewriter for all her correspondence, so she wants it working perfectly. Barely has she left than an unkempt, leather-clad man comes into the store and demands Mirabelle’s typewriter — no other will do. He gets quite threatening about it, but Clare delays him while Marion calls the cops and he flees, only to turn up the next day, behind the store, dead.
Clare’s best friend, Jodie Wentworth, is on the local police force (as is Jodie’s brother, Creighton, who Clare used to date until she found out he was cheating on her), so Clare is able to stay on the fringes of the investigation, though of course being the main character in a cosy mystery she also carries out her own investigations. Side plots involving Chester being up to something mysterious (including looking up pancreatic cancer on the office computer, which he barely knows how to use), and Clare meeting a new guy who might work out, even though Jodie does a background check on him and finds out something criminal.
It took me a little time to warm up to this one, but warm up I did. Clare is a good focal character, likeable and interesting. Chester, Marion and Jodie are all enjoyable people, and Seth, the new boyfriend, shows potential though we spend little time with him and much of that is coloured by Clare’s attraction to him. Even Creighton shows signs of being a decent person, though again, our picture of him is shaped by Clare’s dislike. The town . . . feels a bit odd, but I think part of that is that the mystery revolves around town history dating back to 1950s, involving silver mining and family businesses in a way that to me feels like it should date back to the 1850s but can’t if people are going to be still alive. This may not be a problem younger people would have.
Overall, a decent cosy with likeable characters, a not-too-horrible mystery, and a store cat. Recommended.
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