Review: Two-Trick Pony: The Drifter Detective Series No. 8 by Garnett Elliott

The eighth book of The Drifter Detective Series is split into two parts. As Two-Trick Pony by Garnett Elliot opens, it is 1948 in the Texas panhandle. Jack Laramie has to listen to nonsense from some trucker as the miles of Route 66 pass by. The Desoto broke down on his way to Amarillo so he was forced to hitchhike and that resulted in his riding with the trucker who sees Commies everywhere. Jack Laramie saw far worse than Commies when he served during WWII and is well aware this guy is an idiot. Using the gun he has with him that was once carried by his legendary grandfather would be a bad idea and not just because to do so would disrespect the weapon.

Newly minted private detective Jack Laramie is on the way to Amarillo on behalf of his boss, Hobart Jones, an insurance investigator down in Dallas. All he knows is he is supposed to see a Mr. Adair about a horse. It isn’t a case Laramie is going to want either after he hears the man out, but he has been paid and the job has to be done.

Part Two picks up 11 years later in Dallas where Jack Laramie has given up the lure of the open road for a shabby office in the Wilson Building near Commerce Street. Despite what had happened with members of the local mob three years earlier, Laramie had come back and opened his office. At least the Montmartre Club is within walking distance.

He has become a regular. One of the entertainer’s tonight is new in town. She is also a woman he knew in another time and in another place. She was trouble then over in Longview. No doubt she is trouble now. He has unfinished business with her. He isn’t the only one.

The grandson of legendary US Marshal Cash Laramie first appeared in The Drifter Detective. He continues on here in Two-Trick Pony. Every installment gives readers a strong taste of noir style crime fiction and this two-part read is no exception. Drive by nightmares from his past, Jack Laramie is a loner looking for peace in a bottle and justice at the end of a gun. Whether he finally found it is open to interpretation. This reader hopes the search is not over.

The series: 

The Drifter Detective (Reviewed March 2013)

Hell Up In Houston (Reviewed September 2013)

The Girls Of Bunker Pines (Reviewed March 2014)

Wide Spot In The Road (Reviewed June 2014)

Dinero Del Mar (Reviewed August 2014)

Between Juarez and El Paso (Reviewed September 2015)

Torn And Frayed (Reviewed June 2016)

Two-Trick Pony: The Drifter Detective Series No. 8

Garnett Elliott

Beat To A Pulp

http://www.beattoapulp.com

October 2016

ASIN: B01M8I5H4J

eBook (also available in paperback)

99 Pages

$1.99

According to Amazon, I purchased this back last December. While it does not say how I made the purchase, I took advantage of a free read promotion or I used funds in my Amazon Associate account.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2017