Gumshoe

Starred review from September 7, 2015
At the start of this complex, seductive thriller from Leininger (Killing Suki Flood), Mort Angel has quit a dead-end job as an IRS agent and is about to embark on a new career as a PI trainee in Reno, Nev. Meanwhile, Mort’s ex-wife has been heating the sheets with Reno’s mayor, but the mayor has mysteriously disappeared along with the city’s DA, and Angel’s first assignment is to hunt down the two missing politicians. What looks like a straightforward hard-boiled tale takes one surprising turn after another, propelled by Mort’s snappy narrative voice and wry observations. While Mort’s astonishing success in the romance department is more than slightly far-fetched, Leininger keeps the action rolling fast enough to keep any willing reader turning the pages. Eventually, Mort unravels a family history that would make Ross Macdonald proud. There’s no violence and very little gore for most of the novel, but after a long and complicated buildup, the climax arrives with screaming intensity.

September 15, 2015

When IRS agent Mortimer Angel decides to switch careers and become a private investigator, he envisions himself a modern-day Sam Spade spouting smart repartee, meeting gorgeous girls, taking in plenty of action, and solving murders. But, aside from the gorgeous girls he's met, including one mysterious woman who breaks into his house, appropriates his bed, and leaves him notes, the only thing Angel finds in his first two days on the job are severed heads; three of them to be exact. Two belong to the mayor and district attorney of Reno; the third happens to be his nephew and new boss, Gregory. Realizing that his inexperience as a gumshoe is a major drawback in solving the murders, Angel hires experienced PI Jeri DiFrazzia, who is herself gorgeous, to help. VERDICT The tone of Angel and DiFrazzia's repartee recalls Dashiell Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles of the "Thin Man" series. Angel's cavalier but determined attitude is offset by DiFrazzia's all-business demeanor, making them a likable and effective team. The somewhat implausible ending does not diminish the reading enjoyment. Should Angel and DiFrazzia morph into a series, mystery readers will be well served.--Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015
For the first third of this novel, readers are likely to wonder, along with hero Mort Angel, just what they're getting into. Mort is a former IRS agent seeking to reinvent himself as a PI. He and his author push all the buttons. He's solitary, he drinks too much, he banters with hookers. Is this a parody? An homage? A clumsy attempt to have it both ways? Hard to tell, even when Leininger has Mort, just like Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep, come home to find a gorgeous naked woman in his bed. Then Mort is asked to solve a couple of grisly murders; he pairs with a female PI, who is also a judo champ, and the mood darkens beautifully. She teaches him how to be a real detective, not the storybook version, by making him sit in a library and read dull documents until his eyes burn. They're drawn into a story of madness, incest, and revenge that ends in a stunning set piece that roars for nearly 40 pages. A fine, thrilling read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)