October 16, 2003

The Lexington Minuteman

Mystery is set in Arlington Heights

BY HELENE NEWBERG CORRESPONDENT

Lawyer, writer and Lexington resident Andrew McAleer wrote his first mystery in fifth grade. Called "Super Spy for the FBI," McAleer said he still has the original, on yellowing lined paper.

His most recent book — "Double Endorsement" — is not about the FBI, but Arlington Heights. McAleer has worked for and with many local businesses, including a stint delivering mulch for Wilson Farms in Lexington.

Delivering to a home on Park Avenue, he fell in love with the area.

"It's amazing. On one side, there's the view of Boston; on the left, the view is of Lexington and Concord. It's a nice transitional area between city and country, a unique little enclave," McAleer said.

He found it made a nice home base for private investigator James Hillton, featured in the book.

"Hillton can work out of his comfort zone, he's kind of mercurial and he can work with both city folk and country folk," McAleer explained.

Many Heights businesses, both current and long gone, get nods in the book. McAleer's first mailbox was kept at "Just Like New." "I reopened the Dough C Dough, I felt I owed it to the community, though I admit I didn't pull a permit. My mother and I used to go to there after seven a.m. Mass," he remembered.

Jade Garden, a current restaurant in that same block, which McAleer said he also frequents, also gets a mention, along with many other local businesses.

He has a great respect for Arlington's history.

"Arlington is a great town to set a mystery in. If the series takes off, I would love to touch more on Arlington," he said.

"The ideas are overwhelming. The action would start in Arlington with local haunts, then to keep the action going the story can move to the South Shore, Concord, or Lexington," he said.

For his plot, McAleer prefers puzzle to grisly violence.

"There are not a lot of hard boiled characters around here," he said. "I wanted to make what I thought would be family escapism, to me, what's paramount in a mystery is a fun puzzle that the reader can share in solving with the characters.

"The reader, along with the characters, can play Dr. Watson. My idea is that the reader has fun for a few hours with the book, finds an escape, takes a little trip through the area. I'm a big believer in the First Amendment, but I don't want to give anyone any ideas. There will be a murder and there will be justice," he said.

"This is the first book I sat down with pen and paper and created a plot. Other times I create as I go," he said. After outlining the plot, McAleer took the events he imagined and created a twist, killing off the character least likely to be murdered. The twist, he said, makes the puzzle more complex for the armchair gumshoes.

"Double Endorsement" is available in Lexington at Sundial Books, the Wagon Wheel Farm Stand, and Waldenbooks in Lexington Center. In Arlington, owing to the local relevance, the book will be stocked at Town Hall Barber Shop. "Double Endorsement," McAleer, Andrew. Protea Publishing 2003.