hard boiled detective

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#FridayFeebie : Dead Man Switch – Tara Moss

Description:

Bestselling author Tara Moss returns to crime fiction with a stunning new series, and a stunning new heroine. Meet PI Billie Walker – smart and sexy, with a dash of Mae West humour, she’s a hard-boiled detective with a twist.

She’s a woman in a man’s world …

Sydney, 1946. Billie Walker is living life on her own terms. World War II has left her bereaved, her photojournalist husband missing and presumed dead. Determined not to rely on any man for her future, she re-opens her late father’s detective agency.

Billie’s bread and butter is tailing cheating spouses – it’s easy, pays the bills and she has a knack for it. But her latest case, the disappearance of a young man, is not proving straightforward …

Soon Billie is up to her stylish collar in bad men, and not just the unfaithful kind – these are the murdering kind. Smugglers. Players. Gangsters. Billie and her loyal assistant must pit their wits against Sydney’s ruthless underworld and find the young man before it’s too late.

Tara Moss head shot_thanks to Berndt Sellheim

Giveaway:

If you like your protagonists to be smart, assertive and female then Tara’ Moss’ s new series with the PI Billie Walker written in a modern ‘hard boiled’ style is for you.

For your chance to win pop over to Harper Collins website and tell me  in the comments in this blog post, who said this about the author  “‘A brilliant writer‘ ”

 

**Entries limited to Australian residents only and winners will be selected by a random draw on  the 31st of October 2019.**

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Post Script: Thirst – Thierry Sagnier

Book Cover Thirst Thierry Sagnier

Thirst

Thierry Sagnier

Pigasus Books

ISBN: 9781508805441

 

Description:

 A fortune in drugs is missing. Finding them starts with finding her.

Colin isn’t a cop. Joe is, but isn’t up for this. Mamadou was an excellent police officer back in Senegal, but in Washington DC he drives a limo. Josie’s just a girl—a recovering crack addict fed up with her parents and with Herbie, her boyfriend. She’s planning on giving him a piece of her mind. Trouble is, Herbie stole a shipment of drugs, and now he’s dead. And let’s not forget Mollie Catfish

Now the Zulu wants his drugs, Mamadou wants revenge, Joe just wants to do his job for once, and Colin wants to save his girlfriend’s daughter. All Josie wants is to remember what Herbie might have told her, what the Zulu insists she knows. If she doesn’t—she’s dead too.

Mollie? She wants it all.

Behind the polished marble of Washington DC, lies dark alleys where everyone thirsts for something.

 

 

My View:

When is a detective not a detective? When he is a ten years sober recovering alcoholic researcher. 🙂

 

The pages will simply fly by as you devour this fast paced, hard boiled modern detective novel, the first in the Colin Marsh series. But when is a detective story not really a detective story? When the detective is a ten years sober recovering alcoholic researcher who suddenly finds himself obligated to help out his married lover in her search for her missing daughter. Colin Marsh experiences research of a different kind – the practical, nose to the grindstone, talk to your sources, search the internet, and trace leads kind of research that sees him morph into a modern day hero. A hero – of sorts  – Colin would not refer to himself in this way – he is flawed, he is human and he is just doing the best he can, one day at a time.

Speaking of heroes, when you have read this book – tell me what you think of the character Mamadou? Hero or anti- hero? I really liked this character- his polite ways, his insights, his sense of responsibility and his determination to avenge the death of his sister. But look past the surface, Mamadou has hidden strengths; guile, patience, discretion, a fantastic memory and the ability to manipulate those around him for his own purposes, a great friend but look out if you are an enemy. This character has a few secrets I want to discover.

This is a fast paced, action packed thriller that delights with language that flows, is conversational, realistic and not at all verbose, in fact Sagneir keeps a very tight reign on his use of words, this is pared back, minimalist kind of work – not a word is wasted, not a word is over used or spoken just for the sake of it yet the plot is well developed as are the characters and the settings come alive on the page. Sagnier can write!

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Post Script: Favors and Lies – Mark Gilleo

A thoroughly modern version of the hard boiled detective novel– a great read!

Favors and Lies

Mark Gilleo

The Story Plant

Story Plant, The

ISBN: 9781611881455

  

Description:

Dan Lord is a forty-year-old private detective with a law degree working the blurred line between right and wrong in the Nation’s Capital. As a self-employed solutions broker and legal consultant, he works for a very select clientele. He doesn’t advertise and only takes cases on referral. But when two people close to him are murdered, Dan’s work becomes very personal.

 

With the assistance of a newly hired female intern, extracting clues from a ladder of acquaintances, Dan bounds through both the underbelly and elite of society, each step bringing more questions and yet ultimately taking him closer to the answer he seeks. A bail bondsman, a recluse hacker, a court clerk, a university student, an old-school barber, a high-class madam, an intelligence officer, a medical doctor, and a police detective are among the list of people Dan must cajole for help. His quest will lead him to discover things he never wanted to know, and put him in the position to reveal things that important people would prefer remain unrevealed.

 

Tense, ingenious, and filled with the unforgettable characters that have become a Mark Gilleo trademark, FAVORS AND LIES is the most thrilling novel yet from one of the great new voices in suspense fiction.

 

My View:

Mark Gilleo has created the perfect modern hard boiled detective in Dan Lord: he is tough, he is cynical, he can fight his way out of almost any situation, and he seeks justice for those deserving and has an ambivalent attitude towards the local police and judiciary. Fortunately Dan Lord doesn’t have a drinking or gambling problem – what a relief to find a hero who isn’t a drunk or an addict or one who is weighed down by past misdemeanours and relationships; this is a hero who can hold a conversation, who seeks to solve crime by following the evidence and by using any and all modern tracking and surveillance methods available to him. Dan Lord is a character who is a smart operator, who has charisma, style and principles that endear him to the reader, what a great character.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this modern thriller; it is fast moving, action packed, full of tension and the plot is complex and has a few twists that you will not see coming and the narrative was so engaging it kept me reading into the early hours of the morning until I finished this read. I look forward to reading more of the escapades of Dan Lord.