Bert Shambles.....a Cozy Hero for Our Times by Alondra delToro
Author Tim Hall has given us a delightful hero in Bert Shambles. Let’s take a look at Bert in his two mystery book appearances.
Dead Stock: A Bert Shambles Mystery by Tim Hall is the first book in the “Bert Shambles Mystery” Series. It follows a young man by the name of Bert Shambles, an individual whose surname serves as a testament to how his life is. Bert is a unique character, as he always has his head in the clouds and trouble following him with every step he takes. Unable to leave his suburban Long Island hometown because of a pending three year suspended sentence, Bert picks up a gig over at a local church thrift shop. At the shop, he sells “deadstock”, which is basically just vintage clothes that have never been worn, to a local boutique.
On a routine pick up, Bert finds out that the widow of a recently deceased pro golfer is offering a reward to whoever is able to find her husband’s favorite golf club. She was also going to offer an even bigger prize if you were able to find any evidence that leads to proving that her husband was, in fact, murdered.
Upon finding this out, Bert immediately gets to work! As the adventure unfolds, Bert gets himself involved in a wild goose chase by a violent, van-driving maniac who is romantically involved with a mobster's daughter! And to make matters worse, his probation officer and crazy ex-girlfriend are out to get him by trying to frame him for the murder!
Despite all the madness happening around him, Bert needs to stay focused if he wants to be able to clear his name and not end up in prison. In order to do so, he must discover the truth!
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy That is Your Name
Poor Bert Shambles can’t catch a break! The guy ends up on probation after an act of chivalry goes wrong and now that he’s trying to score some extra bucks, he gets tied into the investigation of a MURDER and gets thrown under the bus by not only his own probation officer...but also his crazy ex-girlfriend! And how can we forget the lunatic chasing after him who has connections to a gang?
In the summary, it makes a point to allude to Bert's last name as a “mirror to his life”- in Shambles! Which reminded me about a study I read from a book called “Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives” by Richard Wiseman. The study focuses on the effects a person's name has on their life. In the late 1960s, research conducted by Arthur Hartman, Robert Nicolay, and Jesse Hurley investigated the effects of having an unusual name on a person. Here are some conclusions they came to:
“Those with unusual names were significantly more likely than the control group to be diagnosed as psychotic.”
“Teachers award higher essay grades to children with likable names.”
“College students with undesirable names experience high levels of social isolation.”
☆ “People whose surnames happen to have negative connotations (such as Short, Little, or Bent) are especially likely to suffer feelings of inferiority.”
So Bert, if it’s of any consolation to you, don’t blame yourself for all of your misery...blame your name!
A. Arthur Hartman, Robert C. Nicolay & Jesse Hurley (1968) Unique Personal Names as a Social Adjustment Factor, The Journal of Social Psychology, 75:1, 107-110, DOI: 10.1080/00224545.1968.9712479
Tie Died, book 2 in the Bert Shambles Mysteries series, features nobody else other than Long Island's most unlikely (and likable) hero, Bert Shambles! Bert is back again on yet another zany adventure that is bound to get a giggle or two out of you.
Still working at the church thrift shop, Bert gets contacted and hired by a beautiful hippie named Scarlett to help get rid of her late father's music memorabilia. They befriend one another and even go out together to a local rock festival. It was there that they witnessed the tragic electrocution of a popular singer. They begin to wonder...was it truly an accident? Or something more? An even bigger red flag gets raised after yet another musician turns up dead! The cherry on top? All of the evidence at these crime scenes point to Bert!
Another race against the clock for Bert to try to clear up his name and not be the real killer’s next target.
Surprisingly enough, there have been plenty of mysterious deaths amongst famous rock musicians in history. Here is an article that goes over a few notorious ones:
A short history of strange deaths in rock
A short history of strange deaths in rock
17 great musicians whose final moments went down in history for the wrong reasons
Interestingly enough, there are two musicians on the list that died by way of electrocution! The first being Keith Relf, the vocalist for The Yardbirds, who while in the basement of his home, got electrocuted playing his electric guitar that wasn't properly plugged in.
The second is French singer Claude Francois who, while showering, decided to try to fix a light fixture that wasn't working properly. Doing so with wet hands...you can imagine what happened next.
Turns out the book is set in the ’60s! Alluding to the rock festival both Bert and Scarlett, I decided to research into famous real-life rock festivals. After doing some sleuthing, I found out that the biggest rock festival of the time was none other than Woodstock. Taking place in the late ’60s on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, Woodstock is known to be one of the biggest rock festivals to date! The four-day-long festival attracted the likes of over 400,000 people from all over the world. The festival featured some of the biggest names in music at the time such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Who just to name a few. The festival was organized by a group of 4 young guys who were originally just trying to build a recording studio in Woodstock. These efforts eventually turned into organizing a mini-concert series to get together the funds to build the studio. This later snowballed into a full-blown festival where thousands upon thousands of people lined up days in advance! All types of obstacles were thrown their way in the making of this festival, but in the end, it turned out to become something so wonderful and much greater than anything the four guys ever anticipated it being.
For a more in-depth look at what Woodstock was like, visit the links below!
https://the60s.weebly.com/woodstock.html
Both of Tim Hall’s mysteries DEAD STOCK and TIE DIED are available on Amazon in print and ebook formats.
