Showing posts with label Jack Laramie series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Laramie series. Show all posts

Friday, December 18, 2020

FFB Review: Wide Spot In The Road (The Drifter Detective #4) by Wayne D. Dundee

Back in September, I reminded you of The Drifter Detective. In October I reminded you of the second book in the series, Hell Up In Houston. Last month I reminded you of the third book in the series, The Girls of Bunker Pines.  Today for this final Friday before Christmas 2020, I remind you of the fourth book in the series, Wide Spot in the Road. Like the others preceding it, this one is not available in eBook format and the print version is only available via third parties at an insane price.

After you read here, make sure you head over to Patti Abbott’s blog as well as Aubrey Nye Hamilton’s blog and see what they suggest today.  Both ladies have a lot of reading recommendations, so I am sure if whatever is suggested for today will not work, something else they have talked about will. 

FFB will return in the new year as the next two Fridays are holidays and you good folks are going to be busy with family and friends.  Take care of yourselves and have a fun and safe holiday season. 

  

If the drifter detective, Jack Laramie, had blinked he might have missed the small “chili” sign in the window of Frenchy's as he passed by. After all there was only one vehicle in the parking lot and the place itself wasn't much to look at. Neither was anything around it at this wide spot in the road where an unpaved county road crossed the little used state highway. Just another wide spot in the road with this one located somewhere in the Texas panhandle. No reason to stop other than that sign for chili.

 

 

For Jack that sign was reason enough to stop. Jack loves his chili and prefers the variations one gets across the state in real places to eat as opposed to the cookie cutter chain joints he sees more and more. He has a lot of opportunity see things out on the road as, despite being based in Dallas, he is out there in his DeSoto pulling the horse trailer. The road is where he mainly earns his living as a private detective. It is early afternoon and he has been on the road quite awhile so by this point he realizes he is pretty hungry and that makes it a good idea to check out the chili served in Frenchy's of Beule’s Corner.


At first, just after Jack got out of the DeSoto and started for the door, the decision seems a bit questionable as there are some raised voices, some noise, and a man suddenly storms out of the diner and barely misses Jack. For his sake he does and with a few more fast steps jumps into his truck. He takes off at a high rate of speed headed down the isolated highway. According to the waitress, Bonnie, who also happens to be the niece of the owner, the guy who made a scene and took off is Alden Frain. Tipping furniture over and ripping the phone off the wall was not appreciated by Bonnie. He probably just ruined any chance he had with her of having a relationship. Tearing the phone off the wall was bad enough, but things are really going to go downhill when two very scared young adults arrive closely followed by a biker gang that wants payback. 



Fourth in an excellent series that began with The Drifter Detective this installment by author Wayne D. Dundee is a good one. Recently published by Beat To A Pulp Press, Wide Spot In The Road is another great action oriented tale featuring the grandson of legendary lawman Cash Laramie. At the same time, readers also find out a little bit more about Jack and what keeps him on the roads of Texas working cases during the 50s. Keeping his grandfather’s memory alive with a gun and a talisman, Jack holds up the family name while trying to make sure good people aren't harmed by the bad guys. In this case, he might be a bit outnumbered. A book and a series very much worth your time.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2014, 2020

Monday, April 24, 2017

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
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


Thursday, June 05, 2014

Review: "Wide Spot In The Road (The Drifter Detective #4) by Wayne D. Dundee

If the drifter detective, Jack Laramie, had blinked he might have missed the small “chili” sign in the window of Frenchy's as he passed by. After all there was only one vehicle in the parking lot and the place itself wasn't much to look at. Neither was anything around it at this wide spot in the road where an unpaved county road crossed the little used state highway. Just another wide spot in the road with this one located somewhere in the Texas panhandle. No reason to stop other than that sign for chili.

For Jack that sign was reason enough to stop. Jack loves his chili and prefers the variations one gets across the state in real places to eat as opposed to the cookie cutter chain joints he sees more and more. He has a lot of opportunity see things out on the road as, despite being based in Dallas, he is out there in his DeSoto pulling the horse trailer. The road is where he mainly earns his living as a private detective. It is early afternoon and he has been on the road quite awhile so by this point he realizes he is pretty hungry and that makes it a good idea to check out the chili served in Frenchy's of Beule’s  Corner.

At first, just after Jack got out of the DeSoto and started for the door, the decision seems a bit questionable as there are some raised voices, some noise, and a man suddenly storms out of the diner and barely misses Jack. For his sake he does and with a few more fast steps jumps into his truck. He takes off at a high rate of speed headed down the isolated highway. According to the waitress, Bonnie, who also happens to be the niece of the owner, the guy who made a scene and took off is Alden Frain. Tipping furniture over and ripping the phone off the wall was not appreciated by Bonnie. He probably just ruined any chance he had with her of having a relationship. Tearing the phone off the wall was bad enough, but things are really going to go downhill when two very scared young adults arrive closely followed by a biker gang that wants payback.

Fourth in an excellent series that began with The Drifter Detective this installment by author Wayne D. Dundee is a good one. Recently published by Beat To A Pulp Press, Wide Spot In The Road is another great action oriented tale featuring the grandson of legendary lawman Cash Laramie. At the same time, readers also find out a little bit more about Jack and what keeps him on the roads of Texas working cases during the 50s. Keeping his grandfather’s memory alive with a gun and a talisman, Jack holds up the family name while trying to make sure good people aren't harmed by the bad guys. In this case, he might be a bit outnumbered. A book and a series very much worth your time.


Wide Spot In The Road
Wayne D. Dundee
Beat To A Pulp Press
May 2014
ASIN: B00KAMO86K
E-book (also available in print)
66 Pages (estimated)
$1.99


Material picked for review using funds in my Amazon Associate account.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Via Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Att...

 I splurged and added this and a couple of other things to the TBR pile the other day....

Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Att...: Amazon.com: Wide Spot in the Road (The Drifter Detective #4) eBook: Wayne D. Dundee: Kindle Store : Vagabond P.I. Jack Laramie stops in the ...

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Review: "The Girls of Bunker Pines: The Drifter Detective Series" by Garnett Elliott

It began with The Drifter Detective and continued on with Hell Up In Houston and now traveling private investigator Jack Laramie is back in The Girls of Bunker Pines. It is 1956 in Kilgore, Texas as a hail storm pulls Jack Laramie from an intense dream of his B-17 being shot down over Germany during the war. While he is back home and has pretty much adjusted to civilian life by wandering across Texas in his Desoto hitched to a horse trailer while working as a private investigator, the nightmares of war persist from time to time. His normal solution of downing a couple of shots won’t work this night as he is on a surveillance job outside a traveling church revival led by pastor Dalton Byrnes.

He may have fallen asleep, but it is clear that nothing much is going on.  The pastor may be a lot of things, but he isn’t having sex with his client’s wife. Though she does seem very interested even if the attention is not reciprocated. While one case seems to be drawing to a close, Jack’s being there has led him to meeting Joe Crewes. One look at Joe and Jack knows he sees a fellow veteran with his own demons.  Joe Crewes served in Korea and has a very complicated case for Jack Laramie if he is interested.

What follows is a complicated tale set in 1956 interspersed with Jack’s memories of flying in a B-17, being shot down over Germany, and the aftermath. Those flashback sections are intense and are skillfully woven into the main storyline of a client who may or may not be helped by Jack. The Girls of Bunker Pines: The Drifter Detective Series is another solidly good read that works on all levels all the way to the end. While it would obviously be best to read the series in order, one could read this as a standalone before going back and picking up the other installments of so desired. Author Garnett Elliott puts you in the moment with Jack and does not let go till the very end.



The Girls of Bunker Pines: The Drifter Detective Series
Garnett Elliott
Beat To A Pulp
ISBN#  978-0991203949
February 2014
E-Book (also available in print)
104 pages
$1.19

Material supplied by the publisher in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014