Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Brittle Karma by Richard Helms

 

Richard Helms is a retired forensic psychologist turned college professor turned full time writer. He has written more than two dozen novels and many short stories. His books have been nominated eight times for the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award, winning the award for Brittle Karma in 2021. He has also won the Short Mystery Fiction Society Derringer Award, the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion, the Macavity, the ITW Thriller Award, and the Shamus.

His series characters include San Francisco private investigator Eamon Gold, forensic psychologist and jazz musician Pat Gallegher in New Orleans, North Carolina police chief Judd Wheeler, and former Charleston police detective and private investigator Whitlock.

Eamon Gold, a contemporary private investigator in San Francisco, has appeared in four books so far; the fifth is expected to be released in 2026. In Brittle Karma (Barbadoes Hall, 2020) Gold is approached by a potential new client: Abner Carlisle has been recently released from prison after a 30-year stay for his part in an armored car heist that yielded $20 million, more than $49 million in 2025. He is looking for the surviving member of the gang, Eddie Rice, who escaped capture and was supposed to hold the take for everyone else. As might be expected, Rice vanished along with the money.

Gold isn’t interested in working for Carlisle. He strongly suspects that Carlisle plans to retrieve the money from Rice and then administer a bullet or two. Gold refers him to another local PI and forgets about it until a local homicide detective tells him Carlisle’s body was found in a low-rent hotel room. Rice is the obvious suspect but no one knows where he is, what he has been doing for the past 20 years, or even what he looks like.

Gold is curious enough to ask a few questions and learns that the insurance company paid the claim on the lost money long ago but would be happy to accept any of it that Gold might be able to locate, less of course a finder’s fee. Money is always nice of course so Gold undertakes a search in earnest, encountering a range of well-rounded characters such as the hard-drinking wife of a City supervisor, an elderly elementary school lunch lady living in a high-end retirement community with all expenses paid, and a retired Army Ranger serving as a prominent mobster’s bodyguard. The compulsive car thief who steals Gold’s ride is my favorite.

The plot is outstanding; a tightly integrated story line yields a completely unexpected solution. The writing is reminiscent of the early Nameless Detective stories by Bill Pronzini, who also made San Francisco his beat. Fans of Spenser, Elvis Cole, and Nameless will want to look at Eamon Gold’s adventures.

 

·         Publisher: Barbadoes Hall Communications (November 14, 2020)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Paperback: ‎267 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎097101597X

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0971015975

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ebZiKZ

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

 

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