From the massive
archive…
By now, pretty
much everyone is very familiar with the classic detective cliché. The Hardnosed
P. I. alone in his office when the beautiful dame (great legs, of course) walks
in. Smoke wreathes the ceiling as she folds her long legs under the chair and
tells our hero her problem. He can help her he decides and beyond that, there
is something she makes him feel that he hasn't felt for a very long time. In
this anthology, the cliché is stood on its head and spun around for interesting
results.
This anthology,
the third of the Fedora series, features seventeen hard-hitting
stories of men being hardnosed men, dealing with the evil that walks the mean
streets. While it is impossible to cover each story in detail, the selections
below reflect a small sampling of the range of stories.
"Ordained
Sin" by Carol Kilgore features Nolan Douglas who just ticked off his
girlfriend-again. But, a case that falls into his lap just might help him ease
back into her good graces as well as allowing him to clean up some human scum.
Sometimes the innocents truly do suffer and nothing and no one can save them.
"One Hit
Wonder" By J. L. Abramo is an intriguing story of a misdialed phone call.
When placing your phone order for a hit, make sure you call the right number
and not Jake Diamond of Diamond Investigations.
No anthology
would be complete without at least one story about bail bonds and bond jumpers.
In this case, read "Kane's Mutiny" by Bev Vincent. Not only is Jimmy
Weber on the run with Kane looking for him, Weber's wife wants to help Kane any
way she can.
Featuring
stories from other excellent writers such as Tom Sweeney, Lee Goldberg, George
Wilhite, David Terrenoire, David Bart, James S. Dorr, Chelle Martin, Dorothy
Rellas, Ann Aptaker, Nick Andreychuk, Michael Hemmingson, Graham Powell, Kevin
Egan and Editor Michael Bracken, interested readers won't find a bad story in
the bunch. The tough guys care, whether they show it or not, the women are
almost uniformly devious, and the streets and other locations are mean. It's a
good thing.
Material provided by Editor Michael Bracken in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple
© 2004, 2010, 2023
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