Stalking Chickens

Concern is mounting for Parker Robinson: Parker's Aunt Ruth, worried that New York City is too dangerous a place for Parker to complete his community service, has taken it upon herself to have him transferred to the wilds of western Minnesota, where she imagines it will be safer, it being the idyllic land of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. Now Parker's job is to try to acquire virgin tallgrass prairies to help save the threatened Greater Prairie Chicken. But nobody informs either him or his aunt, that the Agassiz Beachline ––once the Gateway to the Wild West–– is as wild as ever. Peopled as it is by arsonists and hermits, smugglers and swindlers, and by crazed cowboys with psychotic tendencies that can turn violent at the drop of a Stetson. His path leads him to burning trestle bridges, exploding grain elevators, into mystery caves and to uncomfortable meetings with a Dancing Potato tycoon, an Annie-Oakley-style sharpshooter and the seedy owner of a local strip club. Along the way, he encounters rattlesnakes, menacing gravel trucks, an out-of-control prairie wildfire, as well as a life-threatening winter storm. The main question we are left with is: if this region is so much safer than New York City, then why has Parker received three separate attempts on his life? Stalking Chickens the third book of the trilogy, which includes Stalking Bulls and Stalking Lions.

Concern is mounting for Parker Robinson: Parker's Aunt Ruth, worried that New York City is too dangerous a place for Parker to complete his community service, has taken it upon herself to have him transferred to the wilds of western Minnesota, where she imagines it will be safer, it being the idyllic land of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. Now Parker's job is to try to acquire virgin tallgrass prairies to help save the threatened Greater Prairie Chicken. But nobody informs either him or his aunt, that the Agassiz Beachline ––once the Gateway to the Wild West–– is as wild as ever. Peopled as it is by arsonists and hermits, smugglers and swindlers, and by crazed cowboys with psychotic tendencies that can turn violent at the drop of a Stetson. His path leads him to burning trestle bridges, exploding grain elevators, into mystery caves and to uncomfortable meetings with a Dancing Potato tycoon, an Annie-Oakley-style sharpshooter and the seedy owner of a local strip club. Along the way, he encounters rattlesnakes, menacing gravel trucks, an out-of-control prairie wildfire, as well as a life-threatening winter storm. The main question we are left with is: if this region is so much safer than New York City, then why has Parker received three separate attempts on his life? Stalking Chickens the third book of the trilogy, which includes Stalking Bulls and Stalking Lions.

Steven Thomas Oney is the author of the award-winning Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater series, heard and broadcast world-wide and over more than 225 NPR stations. During the outbreak of Covid in 2019, Oney temporarily suspended producing more radio mysteries in favor of penning a trio of Parker Robinson mystery novels. Commenting, Oney explains: "I have always felt that it was useful for a writer, when starting out, to try to present himself with a challenge in order to spur his creativity to greater heights. (Shakespeare was known for doing this.) I was also aware that author, James M. Cain, is often credited with having written the finest back-to-back, noir-style mysteries with his The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), followed by Double Indemnity (1936). I felt that the basic storylines I had come up with for Stalking Bulls and Stalking Lions were sufficiently good, and had sufficient potential, that I might be able to duplicate what Cain had done, not with a pair of noir-style mysteries, but with a brace of fresh, youthful, amateur-detective-style mysteries. "Then, while finishing the first two, I had another inspiration for a third Parker Robinson mystery, Stalking Chickens. Now, however, raising the project from two books to three, required me to reconfigure my personal challenge. Therefore, I made the switch ––not by trying to duplicate what Cain had done–– but by trying to match what Carolyn Keene had achieved when she authored the first three Nancy Drew mysteries: The Secret of the Old Clock (1930), The Hidden Staircase (1930) and The Bungalow Mystery (1930). (The best of the lot, in my opinion.) "The lucky addition of the third Parker Robinson mystery showing up was fortuitous in that it allowed for a satisfying overall arc to the three stories ––that not only adds to the richness of the first two–– but also gives rise to that familiar poignancy and regret that always follows when the reader is forced to say goodbye to likable characters they've grown to have real affection for."