This book was written by the owner of Reader’s Books, back in my hometown of Sonoma. My mom got me a signed copy for Christmas, and it turned out to be an enjoyable read.
Writing private detective mysteries these days must be tough. There has been so much ground covered over the years that it is hard to be unique. In this book the PI is a crotchety old man taking care of his sick wife, retired from investigating, but pulled back out of retirement to help solve a case.
The mystery takes place in Los Angeles, and since I haven’t spent much time there a lot of the local spots that made cameos didn’t have much effect on me. There is also a lot of Jewish language and culture in this one, as it plays a key part in the mystery. Again, my lack of knowledge about Judaism (especially the kind practiced in America) works against me here.
But the main character is a likable guy and he tries to do right by people, he has a cop friend (which is almost essential in detective stories) and a tough guy friend (ditto – see above) so that we can have some punches and bullets involved. As an old guy he can get away with stuff a younger PI can’t, so I enjoyed that unique twist on the formula.
I thought that although the story and the mystery were well-written, the dialogue sometimes was a little clunky. Compare it with the minimal and seamless dialogue of Spenser and you’ll see what I mean. Also the main character is a pretty old guy, and to get that across we have him talking and thinking in this sort of old guy lingo, which got, well… old after a while.
So it was a pretty good book (especially for a debut novel!) but I’m not sure I can handle that old guy schtick for a whole series of books.
Next I am reading Asada, a cookbook by Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral.
