Assassin P.I.

Elizabeth
Janette
Genre: 
Suspense-Thriller

Jack is a middle-aged former cop turned PI. When a flame from the past, Angie, turns up to hire him to find her husband's killer, against his better—and sober—judgment, he takes the case. The ten thousand cash up front didn't hurt either. Jack is already caught up in things he can't unwind from, and though he has a solid plan for tropical beaches, he's a sucker for tying up loose ends and finding the truth behind lies in a corrupt city. With no real friends and a tenuous tie to the police, sticking around was probably not his smartest choice.

 

Jack is a throwback to Dick Tracy's character; albeit one with a severe alcohol problem and a very foul-mouthed bird. The twists and turns will keep readers guessing, and even as he seems to stumble from one point to the next, there is a method to his madness—though it is not always shared with readers. Jack and Angie's relationship is a focal point, and a reason behind so much. It's all kinds of messed up, which is expected, but not written well enough, with a solid base, to handle the fluctuations of hot/cold and push/pull tension between them. It's confusing. Some secondary characters are fully fleshed out, but others just as important to the story have only a sentence or two—making it, at times, choppy, as if readers should know more than they do. This is a good gumshoe story, with an ending you don't see coming.

 

Julie York