What do you think?
Sam McCain #3
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
The acclaimed Sam McCain series continues - with another case of murder in America's mid-century heartland. In this charming, expertly crafted new mystery set in the twilight of Iowa's 1950s, fledgling lawyer Sam McCain is dancing to a different tune when he discovers that the beautiful blonde who's been tracking him in her black Ford convertible is interested in more than his red ragtop. She's Lila Leigh Mulchaey, and McCain's in love. Two problems, though, darken McCain's Lila is pregnant, and Philip Mulchaey, her father - an outspoken advocate of left-wing causes who'd been fired from his job in the State Department during the McCarthy trials - stands at the center of the political storm surrounding the upcoming visit of Nikita Kruschev to Iowa. Then Philip Mulchaey turns up dead. That he was murdered for his politics, everybody, including McCain's sometime employer, the imperious Judge Esme Anne Whitney, assumes. McCain, however, is not so sure. Murder's usually more personal in Black River Falls.
197 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Ed Gorman
463 books124 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 19, 2024
Hea intrigeeriv algus, aga peagi hakkas vanker vibama ja jõudis alles raamatu lõpus teele tagasi. Olustik oli endiselt tasemel, aga poliitikat ja seksi valati seekord lausa ämbrist. Autori agenda on ilmselgelt 20. sajandi lõpu toode, mitte 1959. aasta olude kajastus.
Selle sarja suhtes on nüüdseks juba sportlik huvi tekkinud. Ilmselgelt ei saa nii hea kirjanik enam samas vaimus edasi lasta... või ikka saab?
Selle sarja suhtes on nüüdseks juba sportlik huvi tekkinud. Ilmselgelt ei saa nii hea kirjanik enam samas vaimus edasi lasta... või ikka saab?
August 13, 2025
So, I liked this book but as I look back on it I have some significant (and a few petty) problems with it.
I've not read any of the other books in this series, so this is my introduction to Sam McCain and his world and I have no idea if these are recurring problems but it's not a good look when Book 3 of a series is this...sloppy.
So Gorman has explicitly stated, often, that the McCain series is intended as a corrective to the nostalgia many feel for the early Rock and Roll era. Now I am far too young to have memories of this time, but my youth certainly was saturated with that wistful wish to return to this 'simpler time', so I share Gorman's disgust with the rose tinted nostalgia. Sure it was a culturally quiet-ish conformist period of general middle class prosperity, but that calm was a quiet imposed with brutal oppression by a generation triply traumatized by the Great Depression, World War II, and the looming threat of radioactive death raining down at any moment. These were people who would go to any lengths to be sure that any disagreement with the White cultural hegemony would be met with a sudden, violent response (see Emmitt Till, see lobotomies, see Little Rock High School, see Operation Wetback). Like I said, I have no direct experience of this time, but I grew up surrounded by its survivors and watching any film, reading any book from the time quickly dispels any idea that there was a general sense that things were just right. That America was safe. I like Gorman's stated project, and given that these are intended as light reading by a public that is probably not entirely on board with his project of de-romanticizing the period his single topic approach makes sense. With that in mind, the headline topic for this novel is the cultural and personal damage done by the Red Hunts.
Except it isn't what the novel is about at all.
Yeah sure, the story starts with Khrushchev's visit to Garst's farm (fun fact: I used to work for Garst in Iowa) and there is a lot of text about the better dead than red crowd, but this is misdirection.
This is a sex book.
All the key action happens around sex. Sam spends all of his time assessing women for how sexy they are. On two separate occasions Sam is delayed from discovering a nearby body by a woman demanding he bone them them immediately. A mysterious woman arrives and basically seduces him in seconds. He at one point positions himself to be sure he is touched by a breast, most of the investigation is turning up who was cheating on whom... and this sex-driven plot goes on right up to the last page .
Other, non-spoilerey, issues I have with the novel rotate around that main project of the series, de-romanticizing the late-1950s. This novel is packed with nostalgic moments, the music, the fashion, the cars, the pastoral ideal of Eastern Iowa in summer, the easy sex. Somehow Gorman manages to get as misty about the past as an episode of Happy Days and actually makes this era sound appealing to an adult. I consider failing at your stated purpose in writing the book is a kind of a big deal.
Then a couple of truly petty points. I used to spend a lot of time in the exact location of this novel. My grandparent's farm, the boyhood home of my father, was near the Iowa River between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. The dam that is mentioned is the one that put that farm under 30 feet of water. I also used to live in Western Wisconsin, so when I read the town name of Black River Falls I got confused each time as to where we were. Now there is only thirty some miles between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids... so adding in Black River Falls, this conurbation gives this small area of Iowa in 1960 a population on par with Des Moines and locates an additional major college and a slummy suburb in there as well. I'm just trying to figure out where they put the farms. Or maybe I should ask where they put the graves, given that just in the one week course of the novel Black River Falls has a homicide rate of 18.5 per hundred thousand. That's on par with the 2024 annual rate of Chicago, double that of Los Angeles, and three times that of New York City. The people of this small city certainly seem awfully blase about their friends and neighbors getting plugged, but maybe that's part of the de-romanticizing project too.
Okay so that's a long way of saying that I enjoyed the book, it was dryly funny and I enjoyed Gorman's writing, so I had to pile up a lot of what bugged me to get the rating to where it belongs: 2 stars
I've not read any of the other books in this series, so this is my introduction to Sam McCain and his world and I have no idea if these are recurring problems but it's not a good look when Book 3 of a series is this...sloppy.
So Gorman has explicitly stated, often, that the McCain series is intended as a corrective to the nostalgia many feel for the early Rock and Roll era. Now I am far too young to have memories of this time, but my youth certainly was saturated with that wistful wish to return to this 'simpler time', so I share Gorman's disgust with the rose tinted nostalgia. Sure it was a culturally quiet-ish conformist period of general middle class prosperity, but that calm was a quiet imposed with brutal oppression by a generation triply traumatized by the Great Depression, World War II, and the looming threat of radioactive death raining down at any moment. These were people who would go to any lengths to be sure that any disagreement with the White cultural hegemony would be met with a sudden, violent response (see Emmitt Till, see lobotomies, see Little Rock High School, see Operation Wetback). Like I said, I have no direct experience of this time, but I grew up surrounded by its survivors and watching any film, reading any book from the time quickly dispels any idea that there was a general sense that things were just right. That America was safe. I like Gorman's stated project, and given that these are intended as light reading by a public that is probably not entirely on board with his project of de-romanticizing the period his single topic approach makes sense. With that in mind, the headline topic for this novel is the cultural and personal damage done by the Red Hunts.
Except it isn't what the novel is about at all.
Yeah sure, the story starts with Khrushchev's visit to Garst's farm (fun fact: I used to work for Garst in Iowa) and there is a lot of text about the better dead than red crowd, but this is misdirection.
This is a sex book.
All the key action happens around sex. Sam spends all of his time assessing women for how sexy they are. On two separate occasions Sam is delayed from discovering a nearby body by a woman demanding he bone them them immediately. A mysterious woman arrives and basically seduces him in seconds. He at one point positions himself to be sure he is touched by a breast, most of the investigation is turning up who was cheating on whom... and this sex-driven plot goes on right up to the last page .
Other, non-spoilerey, issues I have with the novel rotate around that main project of the series, de-romanticizing the late-1950s. This novel is packed with nostalgic moments, the music, the fashion, the cars, the pastoral ideal of Eastern Iowa in summer, the easy sex. Somehow Gorman manages to get as misty about the past as an episode of Happy Days and actually makes this era sound appealing to an adult. I consider failing at your stated purpose in writing the book is a kind of a big deal.
Then a couple of truly petty points. I used to spend a lot of time in the exact location of this novel. My grandparent's farm, the boyhood home of my father, was near the Iowa River between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. The dam that is mentioned is the one that put that farm under 30 feet of water. I also used to live in Western Wisconsin, so when I read the town name of Black River Falls I got confused each time as to where we were. Now there is only thirty some miles between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids... so adding in Black River Falls, this conurbation gives this small area of Iowa in 1960 a population on par with Des Moines and locates an additional major college and a slummy suburb in there as well. I'm just trying to figure out where they put the farms. Or maybe I should ask where they put the graves, given that just in the one week course of the novel Black River Falls has a homicide rate of 18.5 per hundred thousand. That's on par with the 2024 annual rate of Chicago, double that of Los Angeles, and three times that of New York City. The people of this small city certainly seem awfully blase about their friends and neighbors getting plugged, but maybe that's part of the de-romanticizing project too.
Okay so that's a long way of saying that I enjoyed the book, it was dryly funny and I enjoyed Gorman's writing, so I had to pile up a lot of what bugged me to get the rating to where it belongs: 2 stars
April 19, 2012
The Commies are coming! The Commies are coming! Sam has to deal with murders in town with the RED Scare overcoming everyone.He helps where he can and gets kicked in the ass anyway.This was another fantastic read and I continue to enjoy this 1950's-1960's set series.
November 20, 2025
I'm not sure this book supports such exacting analysis as appears in other reviews here. It isn't a deeply researched tome revealing the negative side of 1950s "Mom and apple pie" America. There surely is a lyric tone to Mr. Gorman's books, which is not quite the same as describing them as "cozy". I agree that Sam, charming as he is, finds bedpartners more frequently than seems likely for late 50s Midwest. The real strength of these books is the interactions, the conversations he has with his fellow townspeople. There is hardly a line that doesn't reveal a hidden hope, a long-held regret that fleshes out the characters. You'd love to talk to them yourself. Still, the other books are better.
September 24, 2018
Our intrepid attorney/private eye is at it again. Another murder courts and the worst possible time. A visit is expected from Nikita Khrushchev. The wrong time for the attorney to be busy with a murder because he is supposed to be on the committee that welcomes the \Russian to Iowa.This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS
June 16, 2020
May even be 3.5 stars.
Communism is scaring the Iowa natives and prominent men are under investigation. Everyone is sleeping with other men's wives and McCain beds Pamela, Mary, and a mysterious Russian.
Sam is dealing with an incompetent secretary but it doesn't ring true, too exaggerated.
Plot was okay but unsatisfying. Not the best in this series.
Communism is scaring the Iowa natives and prominent men are under investigation. Everyone is sleeping with other men's wives and McCain beds Pamela, Mary, and a mysterious Russian.
Sam is dealing with an incompetent secretary but it doesn't ring true, too exaggerated.
Plot was okay but unsatisfying. Not the best in this series.
May 17, 2018
I don't like to sound like a prude, but does Sam really need to pop into bed with three or four women?? The denouement is a little contrived as well. But I'm not giving up on Gorman's hayseed private i.
November 16, 2023
Sam McCain #3....... 1959, Iowa. The Red Scare comes to small town Iowa and people are getting killed. Judge Esme puts Sam on the case. Very enjoyable light mystery, well constructed with lots of 1959 touches. I like the series a lot, this one gets 4 stars.
August 31, 2026
This series still hasn't caught me the way others have. McCain is a decent guy and his insights into people are interesting, but we don't get to see much of his deductible process. Things seem to just happen around and to him.
January 31, 2024
Flimsy story. Waste of time and paper.
April 13, 2025
Fun read ! Set in 50’s several murders during the Red Scare of suspected communists in Idaho - small town private eye solves murder - fun local characters and town life
May 19, 2013
It is September 1959. The First Secretary of Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, is visiting a corn farm in Black River Falls, a small town in Iowa. Unfortunately, after this intriguing beginning of Ed Gorman's mystery "Will You Still Love me Tomorrow?" Mr. Khrushchev immediately disappears from the plot, and what is left is a sort of "cozy mystery". A renowned writer, suspected of having strong Communist leanings, is murdered. It would be nice to pin the murder on two prominent Communist hunters who reside in town, but soon they are killed as well. Sam McCain, a lawyer and a P.I., is working on solving the murders, when he is not busy sleeping with or trying to sleep with various women.
This is a few years after the peak of McCarthyism, the prestige of HUAC is quickly declining, and the Red Scare is fading, particularly in big cities. It is still alive in small towns, though, such as the one portrayed in the novel. Mr. Gorman manages to convey some of the hysteria of the times when he describes an open meeting of the school board. He tries hard to convey the Fifties feel in his novel. The clothing of the era is carefully described, the characters make out in a drive-in theater, and Spam tastes better with baked beans. However, although the language and behaviors shown in the novel are indeed those of the Fifties, the author's sensibilities - ethnic, sexual, and otherwise - clearly belong to the early 2000's, and the book does not really feel that authentic.
This is not a bad book. The plot is relatively interesting, and the writing is pretty funny at various places. Two of my favorites: "herculean bowel movement", and keeping the emergency "thing" in the billfold, right next to the photo of John Foster Dulles. Also, the novel is very short, which is commendable. On the other hand, I do not care too much for the "cozy" style, as exemplified, for instance, by Sam's checking what the "word on the street" is with elderly residents of a nursing home.
By the way, Mr. Khrushchev indeed visited Roswell Garst's corn farm in the town of Coon Rapids, Iowa, in September 1959. I wish the book featured more of the good old Nikita.
Two and almost a half stars.
This is a few years after the peak of McCarthyism, the prestige of HUAC is quickly declining, and the Red Scare is fading, particularly in big cities. It is still alive in small towns, though, such as the one portrayed in the novel. Mr. Gorman manages to convey some of the hysteria of the times when he describes an open meeting of the school board. He tries hard to convey the Fifties feel in his novel. The clothing of the era is carefully described, the characters make out in a drive-in theater, and Spam tastes better with baked beans. However, although the language and behaviors shown in the novel are indeed those of the Fifties, the author's sensibilities - ethnic, sexual, and otherwise - clearly belong to the early 2000's, and the book does not really feel that authentic.
This is not a bad book. The plot is relatively interesting, and the writing is pretty funny at various places. Two of my favorites: "herculean bowel movement", and keeping the emergency "thing" in the billfold, right next to the photo of John Foster Dulles. Also, the novel is very short, which is commendable. On the other hand, I do not care too much for the "cozy" style, as exemplified, for instance, by Sam's checking what the "word on the street" is with elderly residents of a nursing home.
By the way, Mr. Khrushchev indeed visited Roswell Garst's corn farm in the town of Coon Rapids, Iowa, in September 1959. I wish the book featured more of the good old Nikita.
Two and almost a half stars.
February 24, 2014
This is a very special 'private eye' series built around a lawyer and special court investigator, Sam McCain, in a small town in the midwest (Iowa) in the fifties and sixties. I absolutely love this series for several reasons:
1. the wonderful immersion into a different time, spanning a decade from the late fifties to the late sixties. The descriptions are detailed, evocative, engaging and realistic. They are exceptionally well done.
2. The protagonist is a likeable average joe, who is easy to identify with and tells the stories in the first person. His back story is as engaging and interesting as the murder mysteries he gets involved in, and has become the main reason why I have become hooked on this series.
3. There are plenty of connections to the pop culture of the fifties and sixties, which is a bonus for any lover of music, books, cinema and culture of the period.
4. The mysteries are well crafted and keep you guessing until the end.
5. Every single one of the entries in these series is excellent without exception and well worth the read.
Give this a try, you won't regret it. I read all 9 books in 2 months and can't wait for the 10th entry, 'Riders' on the Storm', that will appear in October 2014! I hope Mr. Gorman gets the opportunity to write several more before he retires.
1. the wonderful immersion into a different time, spanning a decade from the late fifties to the late sixties. The descriptions are detailed, evocative, engaging and realistic. They are exceptionally well done.
2. The protagonist is a likeable average joe, who is easy to identify with and tells the stories in the first person. His back story is as engaging and interesting as the murder mysteries he gets involved in, and has become the main reason why I have become hooked on this series.
3. There are plenty of connections to the pop culture of the fifties and sixties, which is a bonus for any lover of music, books, cinema and culture of the period.
4. The mysteries are well crafted and keep you guessing until the end.
5. Every single one of the entries in these series is excellent without exception and well worth the read.
Give this a try, you won't regret it. I read all 9 books in 2 months and can't wait for the 10th entry, 'Riders' on the Storm', that will appear in October 2014! I hope Mr. Gorman gets the opportunity to write several more before he retires.
August 3, 2008
It's 1959 and the red scare is still in full bloom. Twenty-five year old Sam McCain, lawyer/private eye, is there when Khruschev comes through on his tour of America's heartland.
Political writer with leftist leanings Richard Connors tells Sam that someone is trying to kill him: nasty letters, flat tires, a fire in his office, and a shot taken at him. He has something he wants Sam to hold for him, will bring it over tomorrow.
He shows up the next morning at Sam's office with a hammer and sickle in blood on his forehead, a bullet in him, and dies on the floor.
That's just the beginning.
A fake FBI agent, who Sam's nemesis, Cliffie, the sheriff, buys wholeheartedly, beats Sam when caught going through Connor's desk. He then turns up dead in Sam's apartment, in a closet.
As Sam stumbles along looking for clues and piecing things together, another body turns up, the papers are full of the red menace murders.
Nicely done mystery that captures the time, the music, the mores of that period.
Political writer with leftist leanings Richard Connors tells Sam that someone is trying to kill him: nasty letters, flat tires, a fire in his office, and a shot taken at him. He has something he wants Sam to hold for him, will bring it over tomorrow.
He shows up the next morning at Sam's office with a hammer and sickle in blood on his forehead, a bullet in him, and dies on the floor.
That's just the beginning.
A fake FBI agent, who Sam's nemesis, Cliffie, the sheriff, buys wholeheartedly, beats Sam when caught going through Connor's desk. He then turns up dead in Sam's apartment, in a closet.
As Sam stumbles along looking for clues and piecing things together, another body turns up, the papers are full of the red menace murders.
Nicely done mystery that captures the time, the music, the mores of that period.
December 12, 2015
Halfway through I realised I'd lost the thread of the plot; pondered for a moment about starting again, but decided to go on instead.
Stuck a problem immediately. Two of the characters had a given name starting with the same letter. Another two had a surname starting with the same letter. A third character had a name starting with the same letter as the first two, and whose name could also have been either male or female.
The subject of author's selecting one or two letters of the alphabet for their characters' names when they have twenty-six to choose from has often been debated by book clubs. But so far...
The title of the book is also a bit of a mystery. He does raise the subject that some people (of the opposite sex) give us siren calls that we can't resist even though we know it will not lead us into the paradise we're looking for.
However, that's not really what the book is about.
Stuck a problem immediately. Two of the characters had a given name starting with the same letter. Another two had a surname starting with the same letter. A third character had a name starting with the same letter as the first two, and whose name could also have been either male or female.
The subject of author's selecting one or two letters of the alphabet for their characters' names when they have twenty-six to choose from has often been debated by book clubs. But so far...
The title of the book is also a bit of a mystery. He does raise the subject that some people (of the opposite sex) give us siren calls that we can't resist even though we know it will not lead us into the paradise we're looking for.
However, that's not really what the book is about.
August 16, 2009
I was really ready for another installment of Gorman's Sam McCain mysteries. All of them are set in the 1960s just when the care free living of the 1950s is over and the politically charged 60's has begun. This book covers the Communist blacklisting times of wondering just whose list you were on and why. A self proclaimed liberal ends up murdered the same night Sam's love of his life, Pamela gives into him. Gorman writes so manly and his way with words is like listening to a fantastic rain storm. So interesting with punches of surprises followed by calm eloquence. My only disappointment is that he didn't write dozens more installments of McCain mysteries.
January 17, 2016
The 2nd in the Sam McCain mystery series. Sam is still in love with Pamela, Pamela is still in love with Stu, Mary is still in love with Sam but planning to marry Wes and the "commies" are infiltrating Black River Falls, Iowa--at least that's what some of the residents think. With no lack of dead bodies, bedroom opportunities and great references to all that's 1950'ish, another fast moving mystery full of great characters and laugh out loud dialogue. I'm looking forward to reading the 3rd installment for our mystery book club this month.
Read
July 26, 2011I LOVED this book. It's the third in the series (yeah, leave it to me not to start at No 1) but it's really really fantastic! If you're a fan of Joe Lansdale's work you'll LOVE Sam McCain, a down-to-Earth PI that tells it like it is in a time gone by like no one else does. GET YOURSELF A COPY and ENJOY!
March 29, 2014
I read this cozy mystery thinking that my in-person book club would enjoy it. After reading it, I decided it was to cheesy to suggest for a discussion. The setting was good because it was in small-town Iowa. Most of the characters were one-dimensional. Because of the easy to follow story-line, I was able to finish this book while in bed with a fever.
April 7, 2014
Two years have passed since the beginning of the series, it's 1959. The descriptions of everything are lovingly drawn - they sound realistic, but they are before my time, so I'm not sure. Poor Sam/lucky Sam the girls are throwing themselves at him and then loving and leaving him. I'm thoroughly enjoying this series.
February 10, 2008
[close] What seems like light weight murder mysteries, all of a sudden, each of these books hasw some strong political/cultural reminder of the 50's and early 60's. This book reminds of usMcCarthy fear mongering, the committee, commie scars and racism. Good forEd G - Thanks.
December 12, 2012
Enjoyable Sam McCain murder mystery highlighted by the many turns his love life takes. The commie scare has hit Iowa and a local man suspected of being a "pinkie" is murdered. Judge Whitney wants the crime solved quickly before the town of Black River Falls becomes a joke. Recommended.
July 19, 2008
I have the paperback version.
June 4, 2009
Not even the nostalgic 50's setting and the red-baiting theme could save this book for me: I dumped it with 40 pages to go. I guess that says it all.
February 27, 2011
Although it was written in 2000, it is set in the 50s, and that's what makes it fun. It's nostalgic reading more than anything else. The mystery is just a bonus.
July 31, 2011
I enjoyed this dip into Sam McCain's life. Sam is an interesting character and Black Falls is an interesting town.
November 7, 2013
weaker than the first two IMO...maybe I just don't remember the era well enough to appreciate it...but still good enough to continue reading the series
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews