Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: No Deal by J. D. Allen

The latest of Jim Bean’s adventures as a Las Vegas private investigator may be the best of them all. Released last week, I raced through No Deal by J. D. Allen (Severn House, 2022) in a single sitting. It should have been a routine assignment for Bean, to escort Zevah Relan, 17-year-old daughter of corporate mogul Manish Relan, around Las Vegas for a day or so while she shops and her father is occupied with business meetings. Zevah is Relan’s oldest child from his first marriage to a U.S. citizen. After the divorce, Relan fled back to a traditional arranged marriage in India and had two more children there.

As Zevah and Bean are leaving the luxury hotel in Las Vegas where the Relans are staying, three men grab Zevah. In an instant Bean handcuffs himself to Zevah so that the snatchers have to take him too. They reward his quick thinking by tasing him twice, then drugging both of them.

He awakes in pain in a locked room with barred windows, Zevah still secured to his arm. Bean is sure he’s dealing with professional kidnappers. On the one hand, he knows they cannot be reasoned with, on the other hand, they will be businesslike about the arrangement and release the pair as soon as Relan pays their ransom demand.

When he explains this to Zevah, she is devastated. Her father has firm ideas about extortion. He has told his children repeatedly that he will not pay for them if they are kidnapped and that they need to watch their surroundings so as not to be seized in the first place. (Relan cannot be considered for any kind of good parenting award.)

While Bean works on a way out, law enforcement in Las Vegas is searching for them and Bean’s PI trainee Sandy Gupton decides to help, adding a second narrator to the story. Her interactions with the FBI and the local police manage to convey a good bit of information about corporate kidnapping without sounding like a data dump.

I really liked this story. It is a classic combination of mystery and adventure, packed with action, a great setting, and lots of surprises. It’s always a pleasure to visit Jim Bean, Sandy, and their friends. The final couple of scenes were completely unexpected. Highly recommended for thriller fans and anyone who is just looking for a good read.

 

·         Publisher: ‎ Severn River Publishing (August 26, 2022)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Hardcover: ‎ 244 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 1648752969

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1648752964 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.