Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Stiff Arm Steal by J. Stewart

J. Stewart has written more than two dozen thrillers and mysteries. His first and longest-running series is about Miami Jones, a private investigator in Palm Beach, Florida. While Jones would rather be warming a stool in his favorite bar with his sidekick Ron Bennett, he is forced to work occasionally to generate money to pay his bar tab. 

Stiff Arm Steal (Jacaranda Drive, 2015) opens with BJ Baker, former college football star and NFL pro ball player, demanding Jones’ presence at the luxurious Baker estate. Jones is intrigued and goes to see what the great man can possibly want from him. Quite a bit, as it turns out. Baker’s Heisman trophy is missing. Baker wants Jones to find it. Baker recently hosted a well-attended charity fundraiser but he is sure that none of the wealthy attendees had anything to do with the priceless relic’s disappearance. Jones isn’t so sure, since the property is otherwise well guarded.

Jones begins questioning everyone who attended, annoying Baker’s friends and thereby annoying Baker, who is focused on the catering staff. Before Jones can completely antagonize Baker and thereby lose a fat fee, someone at the other end of the income spectrum phones the police, saying her father’s Heisman trophy has been stolen. Jones visits the scene of the second crime, a modest trailer park, with his cop girlfriend. Jenny Bellingham, a nurse working in an ER, came home from her night shift to see someone in a cowboy hat and fake mustache take the precious memento of her father. He threatened her with a knife and left. A few days later apparently the same person breaks into an apartment across the state in Tampa and steals another Heisman, then beats the frail owner who tries to stop him. Clearly a football-centric crime wave was underway.

Jones is a classic contemporary private investigator, full of wise cracks, some of which are really funny, with a dapper sidekick and ties to the underworld as well as a state police girlfriend. The Florida backdrop guarantees quirky characters and gorgeous weather. This first book in the series is original and well written with some sharp dialogue. The seventeenth title was released last year. For fans of sports-themed mysteries, Florida settings, and private investigator stories.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Jacaranda Drive (September 2, 2015)

·         Language: English

·         Paperback: ‎272 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0985945575

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0985945572

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3J8IUMp

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

 

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