A disappointing Edgerton

Some novels seem to be more than the sum of their parts. Clyde Edgerton's Redeye (1995) somehow seems less.

With outlandish characters, a love triangle of sorts, a murder, a determined dog with an eerie red eye and loads of outrageous comedy, you might think the novel would offer satisfaction. Instead it falls flat. It's less than 250 pages long, and when you finish it you may find yourself asking, "Is that all there is?"

It's 1891 along the Colorado-Utah border where ancient cliff dwellings are discovered and immediately viewed as a possible tourist attraction. Other parts added to the mix include a would-be mortician who thinks blowing up a corpse is an ideal way to promote his business, a young woman from the East pursued both by a handsome Englishman and a Mormon bishop (who may or may not have several other wives), a mute old woman who's convinced a mummified baby from the cliff dwellings is her own dead baby and a stranger plotting to kill the bishop in revenge for his part in the Mountain Meadows massacre (a true event in which Mormons are believed to have plotted with Indians to wipe out a wagon train).

So that sounds interesting doesn't it? Maybe there's just too much going on, or perhaps the novel is too short to develop the possibilities. Whatever the case, Redeye is at times a pleasurable ride, but it goes nowhere.