Monday, October 03, 2011

Short Story Review: "Teed Off" by Mark Troy

Val Lyon, based in Honolulu, Hawaii is a tough no nonsense private investigator. Her latest case involves Glenn Floeck, owner of “Teed Up,” a line of golf shops. He plans to expand his company to the islands. That means he and his bodyguard, Frodo Baggins, need a car and a driver.



Val Lyon can provide both along with plenty of attitude and investigative skills. By working undercover and getting close to him she can get the answers she needs. The answers will come one way or another in this very good story.

Originally published in Fedora, Private Eyes and Tough Guys edited by Michael Bracken and released by Wildside Press back in 2001 the story serves as a nice introduction for readers unfamiliar with the Val Lyon character.  The former cop, former basketball player, and former couple of other things also appears in several other short stories as well as the very good re-released novel Pilikia Is My Business also available from Ilium Books. 



That novel was reviewed here as part of Friday’s Forgotten Books back in September 2010.

In the interest of full disclosure I should note that not only do I consider Mark Troy a good friend, he also recently posted on his blog a plea to help us in our ongoing nightmare. That was done while I was reading his story and did not influence this review.

When you have been reviewing books and other materials as long as I have been, it is inevitable that at some point you will be reviewing the work of a friend. In addition to being a valued number of the writer’s group I am, Mark Troy writes good stuff.  I’m not about to start stripping the work of friends from my review pile. But, I can and will tell you of these relationships so that you can decide whether or not to consider that sort of thing when you read my reviews.

TEED OFF
Mark Troy
http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com/
Kindle e-book
September 2011

Despite being a member of my local writers group, this story was never seen before by me prior to this review. It was supplied by the author at my request for my objective review.


Kevin R. Tipple

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