This is my first book by this author, and it was good to head back to Boston to meet a new private investigator. Since I like the Spenser books so much, it was inevitable that I’d be comparing with Robert B. Parker’s mystery books in that series.
While Spenser (basically) works alone, this book introduced the private eye pair of Kenzie and Gennaro. The point of view is from Kenzie, and he shares the same smart-ass and occasionally self-deprecating humor with Spenser. The level of humor is a little more simple here – sometimes it felt a bit like dad jokes.
This book contains a lot of racial issues that are boiling in Boston at the time, and rather than joke about it from the side they take it head on, which is kind of refreshing but also a little oversimplified to fit into the genre.
Unlike Spenser, Kenzie is a fallible guy who has a hard time getting the drop on his pursuers and can’t shoot very well. He has friends to bail him out but there is only so much they can do.
All in all it was an entertaining read, but it felt a little too ham-fisted sometimes – certainly not up to the task of analyzing race relations. But I understand there are more books in the series, so I may try some more and see if they have aged better.
Next I am reading Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
