Harry Lipkin, Private Eye

May 14, 2012
British author Fantoni, once the chief contributor and writer for Private Eye magazine, introduces a most unusual PI, 87-year-old Harry Lipkin, in the first, one hopes, in a light crime series. Norma Weinberger, an affluent widow in her 70s, hires the geriatric gumshoe, who runs his detective agency out of his home in Warmheart, Fla., to look into the theft of a pillbox with sentimental value from her home. Since the most likely culprit is a member of Norma’s staff, Harry interviews the chauffeur, the maid, the butler, the chef, and the gardener in an attempt to uncover financial difficulties that would lead one of them to risk losing his or her cushy job by stealing the item. The headings of the short chapters (“Harry and Mr. Lee Walk to the Kitchen”) reinforce the arch tone. While the ending will surprise few readers, Fantoni doesn’t make the mistake of giving his lead the capacities of a younger man.

June 15, 2012
A 70-something widow whose trinkets have started to go missing from her Coral Gables home hires an 80-something detective to find out who took them. "I might not be the best but I am certainly the oldest," says Harry Lipkin, 87, who's toiled as a private investigator longer than you've been alive. Relocated from Miami to Warmheart, Fla., Harry now works out of his house, but he works just as hard at everything except picking up the slate tiles that have been falling off his roof. So he's a logical choice for Norma Weinberger when something happens to her house keys and her fan, her pillbox and her jade necklace. The suspects, who might have stepped out of a game of Clue, include her driver, Rufus Davenport; her maid, Maria Lopez; her inscrutable Chinese butler, Mr. Lee; her cook, Amos Moses, an Ethiopian Jew; and her doper/Zen/hipster gardener, Steve. As in the Golden Age stories Fantoni (Mike Dime, 1984, etc.) is sending up, they're all hiding secrets, but none of the secrets makes it obvious that any of them is the thief. As the stakes mount (a diamond brooch vanishes, followed by the Weinberger love letters, and Harry gets threatened by someone who turns out to be in much greater danger himself), Harry questions witnesses and compiles a list to determine whose motive is most compelling, but his list leads nowhere. Neither does a trap he baits with an emerald necklace. How can Harry vindicate his honorable profession? The mystery won't fool anyone who's read the same books Fantoni has, but Harry's digressive narration provides a good deal of gentle fun.

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June 1, 2012

Not inclined to retire, 87-year-old Miami PI Harry Lipkin readily takes a case from Mrs. Weinberger, a local dowager who suspects a member of her staff of theft but doesn't know how to proceed. So she hires Harry to investigate. Slowly but methodically, Harry questions everyone from the chauffeur to the gardener, gleaning tidbits as he goes. And so goes the reader: to the boxing club, the racetrack, the dark streets of Miami, and the local hospital. Interviewing retired rabbis, business owners, and others gives Harry a flavor of his client's environment, but not necessarily any definitive clues. A meeting of all parties at the conclusion resolves the case. VERDICT Cleverly modeling his mystery on classic PI novels, Fantoni, a former Private Eye magazine writer and author of several detective novels published in the 1980s, fleshes out a slim semicozy sure to please fans of the genre, particularly those of a certain age. His protagonist's splendid first-person observations about south Florida folks make for a fun afternoon read.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2012
The author of this truly fine detective novelit's really more of a novellaseems thoroughly unimpressed by the conventions of the genre, and his book is all the better for it. Harry Lipkin is an 87-year-old Jewish private eye, plying his trade in Miami, but he's neither cute nor abrasive. He's just a shamus plugging away at his job, with an occasional stop for blintzes. Years ago his wife dumped him, and he tells tales of what the bad city does to innocents, but, really, he brings up all these hard-boiled staples mainly to show his lack of interest in them. The case he takes on would have the old heroes sniggering. Recovering lost lead pencils! Sherlock Holmes would call it. A wealthy widow's heirlooms are vanishing from her house, and Harry interrogates the staff and investigates their lives, looking for a motive. The last chapters play on an older conventionthe country-house murderwhen Harry gathers the suspects in the lounge for the reveal. When it comes, it's as startling to Harry as it is to readers. It's moving, too, and that's another break from the classic rules of the game. An offbeat beauty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)