Review: The Big Empty: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais

 

The Big Empty: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais is one of those books that slaps you upside your head. A very good read, but it is a tale full of pain, heartbreak, and rage, that changed so many lives then and now.

 

For Private Investigator Elvis Cole, the case starts when Tracie Beller hires him. Her mom, her uncle Phil, and her various other advisors wish her not to do it. But, her dad, Tommy Beller, disappeared ten years ago. Everybody believes he just walked away from his family. Tracie never believed that.

 

All these years later, she is a social media phenomenon as she bakes her way to stardom and riches. She has millions of followers and there are investors considering becoming part of her rapidly growing brand. While all of that does matter to her, what is far more important is finding out what happed to her father. She has the money to hire a private detective and she wants Elvis Cole.

 

He agrees to look into things. That means heading out of Los Angeles to the nearby community of Rancha where Mr. Beller was last seen working as he serviced various clients. He and Uncle Phil owned and ran a heating and air company. He was out there, in a company van, doing service calls when he vanished. So too did the repair van. The clients of that day are important, especially the last clients he saw which were Sadie Given and her daughter, Anya.

 

His presence and activities bring him to the attention of others who are determined to stop him, one way or another. As if anything short of being murdered would stop “The World’s Greatest Detective” and his running buddy, Joe Pike.

 

I am reminded yet again that we all need a Joe Pike in our lives.

 

I am also reminded that Robert Crais can seriously write. The Big Empty: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel is a complex multi layered read that hits you hard in the guts and then smacks you right between the eyes. The details of what happened and why are horrific and can’t be shared without blowing up the read. There is a reason why the jacket copy is so sparse and worded the way it is on the book.

 

Strongly Recommended.

 

 

Make sure you read Aubrey’s review from early January.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3XHlTb6 

 

 

My reading copy came from the White Rock Hills Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Review: The Queen City Detective Agency: A Novel by Snowden Wright

  

The Queen City Detective Agency: A Novel by Snowden Wright is set in early 1985 in Meridian, Mississippi. Like an onion, this book is complicated with many layers. Racism, classicism, the Dixie Mafia, and more play major roles in this novel.

 

Turnip Coogan had been facing twenty to life for capital murder when he decided to flee the jail. One of the trustees had left a window open, due to the brutal heat, and Turnip decided to head on out that window. He forgot that the jail was on the roof of the courthouse. Going out that window put him outside on the roof of the building on this blistering hot January day.

 

Trapped on the roof with nowhere to run, his plight becomes a spectacle to all, and a crowd gathers below in downtown Meridian, Mississippi. Known to all as the “Queen’s City” things are on an economic downhill slide no matter where you stand in the city. Being on the roof of the courthouse makes it just a little more apparent.

 

Turnip is also on a downhill slide and he knows it. He knows he has been put in this trap as he, and his well-known connections to the Dixie Mafia, have been used against him. He is a desperate man, powerless against what is happening, and pushed to the edge, literally and figuratively. It is no surprise when he goes off the roof and dies seconds later as gravity finishes the job started long ago.

 

It is just a few hours later when Leonora Coogan, mother of Lewis “Turnip” Coogan, reaches out to Clemetine Baldwin, bi-racial owner of the Queen City Detective Agency to get the people who killed her son.

 

The next day, she and her white partner, Dixon Hicks, drive to Lenora Coogan’s trailer to discuss the situation. By now, everybody for 100 miles around has seen the video of her son crashing to the sidewalk from the roof of the courthouse. She strongly believes that he did not jump to his death.

 

She is sure he was killed because the Dixie Mafia wanted to silence him for what he knew and might say as he faced a possible murder conviction. While she doesn’t know specifics about what her son did for them, she is sure he did some stuff and was important to them, and that they did not want him talking about any of it.

 

While Clem knows that the Dixie Mafia is blamed for anything and everything, she also knows that they sort of exist and are ruthless at times. Mom had no idea what her son did for them and, honestly, did not want to know as she got some good stuff out of his work. That pipeline is cutoff with her son’s death so that factors in, without a doubt, on her request for help now. But she is grieving and needs help, can pay, and despite her subtle and not so subtle racism, Clem agrees to take the case. Afterall, the racism is nothing new and Clem as decades of dealing with it as she was born and raised here and what Lenora is saying is the usual stuff.

 

What follows is a complicated novel where some things, like allegiance to the Confederacy, are proudly displayed, and other things, such as drug use and sexual favors in the jail, are hidden from prying eyes. A complicated crime fiction read, the case and those involved, go through a lot of twists and turns in a book that is well worth your time.

 

One hopes that another book in this series is coming as this one was very good and sets a strong foundation for a possible series.

 

 

For another take on the book, make sure you read Lesa Holstine’s August 2024 review.

Amazon Associates Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4hyiS3T

 

My ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Harper Collins, through NetGalley last summer, with no expectation of a review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Don't Need A Diagram: Philip Kerr, “March Violets”

 Don't Need A Diagram: Philip Kerr, “March Violets”

Lesa's Book Critiques: Buried Lies by Steven Tingle

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Buried Lies by Steven Tingle

Scott's Take: Shadow of a Broken Man by George C. Chesbro

Shadow of a Broken Man by George C. Chesbro is the first book in the Mongo Mystery series. I read this as part of Hoopla Bonus Borrows for the month. This book is set back in 1977. This is a very old book series, but the first book holds up very well. This is another private investigator noir book with some paranormal activity.

 

Mongo is not your typical private investigator. He is a little person who has a doctorate in Criminology, is a college professor, an ex-circus performer, and has a black belt in karate. In this book, Mongo is hired to investigate the death of a famous architect. He is supposed to be dead, but a recent building has been built that shows his influence on the building design. As Mongo investigates, it becomes clearer that Russia, The UN, and the American government would prefer if he drops his investigation. Mongo is not stopping until he uncovers the truth.

 

This is an interesting read with strong mystery elements and some supernatural elements. For most of the book it stays a typical espionage mystery until the later third where some supernatural elements are introduced. I enjoyed this read and Mongo is a unique character.

 

There is a heavy torture scene in this book and Mongo suffers PTSD from the incident. The handling of Mongo’s trauma is done rather well, in my opinion. There are actual consequences to what happens to him for a good portion of the novel unlike most things now where the main character never feels the effects of his trauma. This might be triggering for some people.

 

According to Goodreads there are thirteen more books to read. Hopefully all of them are at least as good as this read.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3AHbq7o  

 

My reading copy came by way of the Hoopla App through the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2024

Jungle Red Writers: A new entry in the pantheon of noir from Michael Amedeo

Jungle Red Writers: A new entry in the pantheon of noir from Michael A...:   HALLIE EPHRON: Some of us began our enchantment with crime novels the more genteel way with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Othe...

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE by Reed Farrel Coleman

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE:   Walking the Perefect Square  by Reed Farrwl Coleman (2001) Moe Prager is an ex-New York City cop, "retired" after he suffered a ...

FFB Review: Watch Me Die (originally The Man With The Iron-On Badge by Lee Goldberg ---Reviewed by Barry Ergang

From the massively magnificent archive…. 

 

At twenty-nine, Harvey Mapes has largely resigned himself to having little in the way of a life. Having been a security guard in an exclusive Southern California community since he was in college, he spends from midnight to eight a.m. six days a week in a stucco shack outside the gates of the Bel Vista Estates, watching a monitor to make sure people don't run the stop sign at an intersection within the community. If they do, he's required to write them "courtesy tickets" when they come through the gate.

 

The job gives Harvey a lot of time to read, and his favorite genre is the detective story—specifically, the hardboiled private eye story. He's also fond of catching reruns of old private eye series on the TV Land channel. Among his favorite detectives, literary and televised, are Travis McGee, Shell Scott, Elvis Cole, Spenser, Joe Mannix, Magnum, and Dan Tana from "Vega$." His fantasy is to be a private eye and have a life as fraught with excitement as theirs are.

 

Fantasy becomes reality when Bel Vista resident Cyril Parkus hires Harvey to trail his beautiful wife Lauren and report to him about her activities. It doesn't take long to discover that Lauren is being blackmailed, though Harvey doesn't know the blackmailer's name or what he has on her. His pursuit of the man earns Harvey a severe beating, but it doesn't dissuade him from eventually learning the man's identity. When he reports what he's discovered to Cyril Parkus, Parkus says he'll take it from here. This doesn't sit well with Harvey because, to his way of thinking, the case has just gotten under way, and his literary and television idols wouldn't quit at this point in a case. Thus, thinking he can help both his erstwhile client and his wife, he once again trails Lauren. When she drives to a freeway overpass, gets out of her car, climbs onto the railing, looks directly back at Harvey, and then dives into the traffic below, Harvey can only stare back in shock and horror.

 

Beset with guilt, despite realizing with the rational part of his mind that he's done nothing to feel guilty about, and again because his fictional heroes wouldn't leave a case unresolved, Harvey is determined to uncover the secret that drove Lauren to her death and, if he can, bring her blackmailer to justice. His quest takes him to Seattle and other areas of Washington state, where he encounters murder, a variety of quirky characters, and some stunning revelations.

 

I've read and enjoyed a number of the novels Lee Goldberg has written based on the TV series "Monk," so I know he's adept at writing humor. There is a good deal of that in Harvey Mapes's first-person narrative, one full of self-deprecating remarks and wry perspective on his particular world. What I initially thought I was getting in Watch Me Die was a fluffy screwball comedy about a private eye wannabe who'd blunder his way through a "case" populated by idiosyncratic characters and wacky events. What I got was far different: a love story (yes, it is that, too) that becomes very dark, violent, and sometimes flat-out nasty; that is as much about Harvey's maturation and insights into himself and others as it is about solving a mystery. Goldberg skillfully manages the delicate transition from levity to gravity as Harvey probes—and sometimes occasions—events.

 

This well-paced page-turner is not a cozy, so readers who dislike raw language, sexual situations, and onstage violence will want to avoid it. Those who can handle those elements will be rewarded with a story that amuses, surprises, and lingers in the mind long after it ends.

 

It's available in both trade paperback and Kindle editions.

 

  

Barry Ergang © 2012, 2022 

Among his other works, Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s locked-room novelette, The Play of Light and Shadow, can be found in e-book formats at Smashwords.com and Amazon.com

 

 

Short Story Wednesday Review: The Shamus Sampler Edited by Jochem Vandersteen

 

From the massively magnificent archive…

 

As author Reed Farrel Coleman writes in the introduction, crime fiction these days has grown far beyond the private investigator. Not that PI novels no longer exist, far from it. But, these days the PI novel does not hold the preeminent position in the world of crime fiction as it used to back decades ago. The classic PI of yesteryear may be gone to a certain extent as no one walks around in trench coats while wearing a fedora these days. But the classic PI is still present in manner and action, though he or she appears in a far different form these days. That idea is very clearly illustrated in the excellent read The Shamus Sampler that features “new detective stories from around the world.”

This highly entertaining anthology begins with one of the hardest stories to explain while not giving away too much. “Mysterious Private Investigations” by Peter DiChellis is one very complicated tale. It involves a jewelry heist, a private investigator, a man in jail for a crime he did not commit, and a search for justice, among other elements.

 

Jake Diamond is up next in “One Hit Wonder: A Jake Diamond Short Story” by J. L. Abramo. If Darlene Roman had answered the phone like she should have instead of ducking across the street for a drink at the health food bar across the street, Jake would not have answered the phone. He did answer and the caller, who didn't give him time to speak, gave the instructions on how he wanted somebody killed. With little to go on, Jake has six hours to find the intended victim somewhere in the city of San Francisco.

 

“The Case of the Derby Diamond” by Jeffery Marks comes next with a classic style PI tale set just after World War II. Mrs. Van Hoskins is a very wealthy woman and exceedingly unhappy as her ring, a seven carat diamond surrounded by a jewel encrusted horseshoe, is missing. She wants it back. PI Donnelly has the chance to find the ring and make some money as The Van Hoskins want things keep very quiet.

 

Gypsy is a call girl and is about to get out of the life. She plans on making Nick Kepler her final client in “Gypsy's Kiss” by Jim Winter. Somebody is not happy with her, or her decision, and is making the point loud and clear. The Cleveland PI will have his hands full trying to keep Gypsy alive and well.

 

Sergeant Thomas Hamilton kept Harry Charters alive during the war and Harry knows he owes him a huge debt. It has been ten years since they saw each other and the passing years have not been kind to either man. Hamilton’s son is missing in “The Smell Of Perfume” by Graham Smith. Hamilton wants Chet found and wants Harry’s help.

 

Jim Wolf, private investigator, lives on a boat in a harbor in Oakland. When he isn't actively working he hangs out at a bar known as “Big Emma’s.” He almost never works for lawyers, but makes an exception for defense lawyer Sandra Jacobs. She needs his help on behalf of a client in “Rage: A Jim Wolf Mystery” by Tim Wohlforth. Wealthy psychotherapist Henry Platt was brutally killed at his outdoor pool. Sandra’s client, his wife Carol, has admitted to killing him, but none of it makes sense.

 

Set in Morris, Oklahoma in 1965 “The Patriot” by Sean Benjamin Dexter is right out of the Cold War with a tale of Russian spies, espionage, and life in small town, Oklahoma. One of the residents thinks he heard somebody who sounded like a “Ruskie” on his amateur radio talking about the local Dow Chemical plant. Local police can’t be trusted so the resident has come to local private investigator, Alex Taylor, for help.

 

He may not be a private investigator as such, but reporter Liam Michael Murphy who goes by the nickname of “Mad Mick Murphy” acts like one in “Drumstick Murder” by Michael Haskins. He is at the annual Key West Songwriters Festival and is supposed to interview the legendary Dallas Lucas. His interview subject is dead and it is very clear it was not a suicide. With Lucas murdered the planned interview feature will now be a piece on his murder--unless the local cops decide the reporter did it.

 

It is always a treat to come across a story from Texas author Bill Crider. Far from the East Texas stomping grounds of his Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, “A Matter Of Heart” is set on Galveston Island. The highly entertaining tale features a private investigator working the murder case of one Sue Traylor. It is a complicated case that has links to the past and the colorful history of Galveston when literally anything was possible on the island.

 

 “Christmas Morning” by Stephen D. Rogers comes next where a man is sure his wife is cheating on him. He bases that on how she behaved at the recent holiday party they attended. He wants proof and will use that to convince her to stop. First up, the private investigator has to find proof that his client is right.

 

Keith Dixon takes readers over to the United Kingdom in “The Same Old Story.” Richie Downes is insisting that he be the latest client of a private investigator by the name of Sam Dyke. He is a big physically imposing man who insists that he is not looking for a divorce; he just wants to know who his wife is seeing. All he wants is the name of the person and does not want proof. He is willing to promise not to hurt anyone. Dykes needs the money and reluctantly agrees.

 

“Q” didn't want to have to give up a knife she liked, but considering she just used it to gut a man in the frozen alley, it seemed like wiping and dropping it was a good idea. That dead guy is just one of the many issues going on in the complicated “The Dutch Connection” by Kit Rohrbach.

 

Fred Zackel is next with his tale set in San Francisco titled “Mario and Cheryse.” A streetwalker named Cheryse should lead to Mario Rosales. His grandmother wants him found and convinced to turn himself in before the cops find him. She would much rather have Mario alive and in jail as opposed to being killed in the streets by the cops.

 

Editor Jochem Vandersteen brings the book to a close his own tale titled “Hired From The Grave: A Noah Milano Short Story.” Noah Milano is a security specialist/ investigator who got a phone call from a man named Mark Beck who wanted to hire him. He would explain why when Milano cane to his Burbank area apartment. When Milano arrived, he found Beck dead in what could be construed as an accidental auto-erotic asphyxiation. Milano doesn't buy it and soon is working the case as a murder.

 

Each of the fourteen stories in “The Shamus Sampler” features a small introduction to the piece that provides context to the story as well as an author bio at the end. Each of the author bios makes a point of mentioning titles of other works by the author as well as the name of the publisher. The tales in this anthology are not only very good ones, but are often very complicated and provide plenty of twists right up to the end.

 

Material supplied by a good friend for my use in an objective review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2013, 2022

Short Story Wednesday Review: Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue 4, Spring 2022

Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue 4, Spring 2022 is billed as The Detective Issue and opens with “Poor Little Rich Man: A Sam Harrigan Story” by Editor Brandon Barrows. P.I. Sam Harrigan is awakened in his office by somebody at his door. That man was Mark Cole who as an actor. Now he is dead having made it his last act on stage to appear at the door of his office. Why and who killed him are two questions that private investigator Sam Harrigan intends to answer.

 

He used to be a detective who did some things that crossed the line. Some of those things pushed him out of the job. There is still time to atone for a thing he should have handled long ago in “Badge” by Michael Grimala.

 

Solving the puzzle was always the attraction for Dick which is why he left the police force and opened his own agency. It is a one-person agency as he prefers working alone to connect the dots. In “See The Signs” by Craig Terlson, he is looking for a missing kid. Simon seems to be a bit young to be a runaway. The mom, Mrs. Jackson, wants no police involvement. That is the first of several oddities with this one.

 

Harry McLean has had enough of Caleb as “Caleb’s Cannon” by M.E. Proctor begins. The pay for information dance is familiar, but Harry has had enough. It has been a rough few days in the heat of South-East Texas on a stakeout and now a new case is in his lap due to a recent incident. Something is up with insurance agent Jerry Walden and Caleb might have an answer or two if he just got on with it.

 

“Lucy’s Inferno” by Robb T. White comes next where Lucy is sent out by the jerk boss, Elliot Schwartzbach III, to a strip-mall in Northtown on Lake Erie. It burned and now the owner is in a rush for insurance to pay up. Lucy is an investigator and is very good at catching scammers, fraudsters, and the like. It isn’t the first time Lucy has had to go to Northtown so this trip is not going to be fun for a variety of reasons.

 

Just because the dead person was homeless and found by a dumpster does not mean the person was trash. Eddie Redmond certainly was not trash. He also was not a drug user so the needle still in his arm means it was a murder. Joe Moncrief intends to make sure everyone knows that fact and to catch the killer in “No One’s Trash” by Luke Foster. This story brings the entertaining issue to a close.

 

The Detective Issue of Guilty Crime story: Issue 4, Spring 2022 is a solidly good read. These stories are not light fluff. Instead, they have a whiff, and sometimes a much stronger scent, of noir running through each one. Detectives, with different styles and perceptions of what is right and wrong, are working in each case in a pursuit of what they see as justice. A lot is packed into each tale. No cardboard character cutouts need to apply. Well worth your time as are the previous issues of this magazine.

 

The previous issues and my reviews:

Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue 1, Summer 2021 (July 2021)

Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue 2, Fall 2021 (September 2021)

Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue Three, Winter 2022 (January 2022)

 

 

My reading copy was a purchase of the eBook earlier this month by way of funds in my Amazon Associate account.

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2022

Something Is Going To Happen: James Crumley’s Unfilmable Masterpiece (by Jameson Trahearne)

 Something Is Going To Happen: James Crumley’s Unfilmable Masterpiece (by Jameson Trahearne)

Lesa's Book Critiques: FADEOUT BY JOSEPH HANSEN

 Lesa's Book Critiques: FADEOUT BY JOSEPH HANSEN

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Gumshoe on the Loose by Rob Leininger

The Gumshoe series by Rob Leininger follows the adventures of Mortimer Angel, who is a fledgling private investigator. He was a career IRS agent and then decided he couldn’t take the strain of the job any longer. He now works for Maude Clary, who owns a private investigation agency in Reno, Nevada, where Mort is gaining enough hours in the field to get his own PI license. Maude is a short, chunky battle axe, always worried about money. Mort is tall and lanky; he is always cutting corners and hiding the fact from Maude. He is also irresistible to women. If this sounds like an echo of the Bertha Lam and Donald Cool series by Erle Stanley Gardner, that’s because it is. There are far too many similarities to be otherwise. Not a carbon copy, but quite alike.

In Gumshoe on the Loose (Oceanview, 2018) Mort is recovering from his most recent adventure and Maude is going to visit family in Memphis. She threatens him with all sorts of retribution if he gets into any trouble while she’s gone. Of course the first thing Mort does is discover the definitely murdered body of a missing pop music star and is photographed near the crime scene. The police have no choice but to consider him a suspect at first. The late rapper turns out to have had some reprehensible habits, thereby earning any number of enemies of which Mort can show he is not one. He’s then hired by the father of a potential suspect to quietly investigate behind the scenes, only Mort doesn’t seem to do quiet particularly well.

He unintentionally acquires an assistant in the form of an attractive young woman. Of course. Their inquiries take them to Las Vegas and its casinos, where a side-splitting scene in the book occurs. The ending explodes in action, taking the story from light and frothy to deadly dangerous in just a few pages.

A fun read, not to be taken seriously by anyone hoping to learn about private investigation as a career. Clearly Leininger’s brand of fantasy PI is popular. Book 5 in the series is due to be released next year.

 

·         Hardcover : 368 pages

·         ISBN-13: 978-1608092741

·         Publisher: Oceanview Publishing; 1st edition (April 3, 2018)

·         Language: English 

 

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020 

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

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Tropical Heat by John Lutz

John Lutz has been a byword in the world of crime fiction for years. He is the author of more than forty novels and over 200 short stories and articles. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as stand-alone books. 

In the first of a 10-book series, Tropical Heat (Henry Holt, 1986), Fred Carver is introduced as a former policeman injured on the job and forced to take early retirement. He acquired a private investigator’s license and hung out his shingle in Del Moray, Florida, where he is still recovering from his wounds. His former lieutenant sends Edwina Talbot, a hotshot realtor who is searching for her lover, to him. All the evidence suggests that Willis Davis committed suicide by leaping from a cliff into the ocean. Edwina does not believe that he would leave her and, since his body has not been recovered, prefers to think he disappeared because of money problems.

Carver is reluctant to take the case – if the police think it’s suicide, it probably is -- but he needs the money and he needs to be busy. He learns that the Davis was skimming cash from client deposits at the realtor firm where he was working. Then he finds forged ID in multiple names in his apartment. Suspicions justifiably aroused, Carver doubles down on talking to Davis’s coworkers and associates, which attracts the attention of some knife-toting, drug-dealing Cubanos who expend considerable effort to discourage Carver’s research. Federal law enforcement representatives who happen to be watching the Cubanos aren’t happy to have Carver in their way. Violence begins to trail Carver wherever he goes, and Carver finds he’s in better shape to deal with it than he thought.

Well written and plotted even if the outcome is predictable. A solid start to a fine series.

·         Hardcover: 246 pages

·         Publisher: Henry Holt & Co; 1st edition (July 1, 1986)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 0030069580

·         ISBN-13: 978-0030069581

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

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

Review: Throwing Off Sparks: A Riley Reeves Mystery by Michael Pool

Throwing Off Sparks: A Riley Reeves Mystery by Michael Pool is the first book in what promises to be a highly entertaining series. There are numerous references to an earlier case which was the focus of the story, “Weathering The Storm,” in The Eyes of Texas: Private Eyes From The Panhandle To The Piney Woods anthology edited by Michael Bracken that came out last year.  While it is not necessary to have read that short story before reading this novel, it would not hurt as those events still have personal repercussions in this novel set more than a year later.

Most of Riley Reeves cases are missing persons and surveillance cases. Divorced and stubborn, she could have easily slid into police work following her legendary father. She is not good with rules so doing private investigator work is her thing as she goes about her life while her brother sits in prison. She works out of a small office building on the square of downtown Tyler that she inherited from her dad and lives in the family home after mom passed. There are wrinkles to both situations that add depth to character and setup conflicts best read instead of being detailed here.

She needs a case as the bills are mounting. The man and woman who walk into her office that morning clearly have money. The wife also clearly has attitude, so she is going to be problematic. They have a problem and seem to want her help. At least the man does, but the wife is another thing.

Paul and Lee Anne Wallace have a 17-year-old daughter, Carmen. Somebody started playing small pranks on her and things seem to have escalated to full on stalking behavior. Somebody is putting nasty notes on her car as well as occasionally vandalizing it. The same person is also apparently coming by in the middle of the night and tapping on her bedroom window. Other little things have been happening as well in recent weeks. Mom, Leanne, is sure it is a neighbor boy who has a bit of a reputation. Dad, Paul, is not so sure he is the one doing it. While they do not agree as to who is doing it, the parents are in agreement that they want and need it stopped.

There is no evidence that the neighbor kid is the one doing it. In fact, there really is not much evidence of anything so the Sheriff’s department can’t really help. For any parent such a situation would be of concern, but their daughter has major life-threatening medical issues so that makes things worse.

While Riley Reese is not sure she can really do anything that has not been tried already, she agrees to come look around the property and talk to their daughter. Once she does that, if she thinks she can help, they can all decide on a plan of action and other details.

Before long, Reese has her hands full with their case and a host of other problems. Things get very complicated very fast in this fast pace mystery. Throwing Off Sparks: A Riley Reeves Mystery by Michael Pool is clearly a foundational book for the series. That means there is a lot of backstory to the various primary characters, especially Riley, so as to set up for the reader how she perceives her world and the people in it. That backstory provides nuance and depth to the characters and does not slow down the read at all because it is weaved in so well. If the coming series follows the precedent here, the series should be really good.

I received an eBook ARC of this read awhile back from the author with no expectation of a review.  

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

FFB Review: "In The Best Families" by Rex Stout (Reviewed by Patrick Ohl)

I was reminded of this review by Patrick Ohl earlier this week thanks to the memories function on Facebook. Since it had been five years, it seemed like a good time to run it again. Make sure you check out the full list over at Sweet Freedom. Have a good one!

PAPERBACK

The last time we checked in at Nero Wolfe’s brownstone in The Second Confession, the great man was directly confronted by Arnold Zeck, a criminal mastermind who is something like the Professor Moriarty to his Sherlock Holmes. Luckily for Wolfe, soon afterwards, an event occurred that placed Zeck squarely on Wolfe’s side. But Zeck has gone too far this time.

It happens when Sarah Rackham asks for Wolfe’s help. She is a wealthy woman, and has been happily married to Barry Rackham for four years. In that time, Barry has regularly asked for money, but lately his demands increased so dramatically that Sarah refused to give him anything the last time. After that, Barry no longer asked her for money, and yet his extravagant spending habits are unchanged. Where is all this money coming from?

No sooner does she leave, a package of sausage is delivered to Wolfe’s door. Except the sausage manages to metamorphose into tear gas, and Arnold Zeck is soon on the line, gloating to Wolfe that had the package contained a bomb, Wolfe would now be dead. He then formally demands that Wolfe not investigate the Rackham case.

AUDIO CD

But Wolfe is not one to be bullied and sends Archie along to the residence of Calvin Leeds, Mrs. Rackham’s cousin, ostensibly to investigate a dog poisoning. (In a delightful tip of the hat to the events of The Second Confession, Archie at first proposes that he go down to Mrs. Rackham’s country house for a weekend party, only to have the idea firmly rejected.) Before you know it, a murder occurs, and Archie is once again dealing with the same officials as in The Second Confession. But this time, when Archie returns to the brownstone, the door is wide open, and Nero Wolfe is nowhere to be found…

The conclusion of the Arnold Zeck trilogy is typical of trilogies. The first one introduces the concepts and the second one expands on them. In the third instalment, the story goes into maximum overdrive with the stakes higher than ever before. The only thing with trilogies is that most of them seem to misstep on the third outing, with a few notable exceptions. In that regard, In the Best Families is a satisfying conclusion for the Arnold Zeck trilogy, but in the interests of fairness, I have to admit it’s the weakest of the three books.

The problem for me is that Wolfe and Archie, so delightful together, spend most of the novel completely apart and only reunite near the end. We miss out on that classic Wolfe-Archie banter, and although Archie is terrific on his own, he’s always so much better when he’s nagging Wolfe. And really, the lengths Wolfe goes to in this novel are just… extreme, especially for him. I’m not entirely sure whether I liked this or not. I’m in danger of saying too much, so I’ll just shut up now.

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The murder mystery that starts the ball rolling is a decent one, with a clue or two pointing you in the right direction, but long before the solution, the book abandons the central mystery and becomes more of a thriller. The mystery is resolved in the end, and its solution really is satisfactory, but it’s been left more-or-less alone for so long that it loses some of its impact.

I liked In the Best Families just fine, but compared to the two entries that precede it, it’s pretty underwhelming. But it stands up decently on its own merits as a Nero Wolfe story, and it really is fun to read about these characters. The stakes are high and Wolfe’s playing a very dangerous game. The book sags a bit in the middle when Wolfe goes missing, but when he reappears near the end, the book springs back to life for one whizz-banger of a finale! And for once, the mystery at the book’s core is pretty decent, especially by Rex Stout standards. Overall, this one is recommended, but only for those who’ve read the previous entries in the Zeck series.

Patrick Ohl ©2014, 2019

Patrick Ohl is a 20-year old Canadian crime fiction aficionado who enjoys hobbies such as taxidermy and runs a dilapidated motel in the middle of nowhere alongside his crazed mother. He enjoys relaxing in his subterranean evil lair while watching his favourite hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and will occasionally make chicken chow mein to die for. His life is accompanied by a soundtrack composed by John Williams, and James Earl Jones provides occasional voice-overs.