Twice As Fatal

By R. Weir

SONY DSC

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XTNTHWW

Plot

Denver PI Jarvis Mann is back in action. Case #1: his landlord wants evidence of her husband’s shenanigans. Mann finds the husband is into some shady street deals. Case #2: an officer friend can’t find his college football playing son. A couple of heavies and blackmail are involved.

Knowing Mann, he won’t stop until he finds the answers.

Another PI story. I like this one because it involves two cases, which, as an author writing a story with a PI handling two cases I was interested to see how this one was arranged. How much time does an author give to each storyline (supposing, of course, they don’t connect farther into the book)? The author does a good job of keeping the different lines separate and not leaving the reader wondering, “Hey what about…?”

Characters

Jarvis Mann: mid 30s, private investigator, drives a Ford Mustang

Kate Tanner: Mann’s landlord, married with children, owner of a beauty salon, 40s, 5’7”, long black hair, tattooed, owns a Harley and Toyota RAV

Jack Tanner: 51, Kate’s husband, 5’10”, 200 lbs, short red and graying hair, drives a Ford Ranger

Melissa Diaz: Mann’s girlfriend, brown hair, green eyes, legal assistant in a law firm, exercises, mother is an attorney

Bill Malone: black, police officer, married with a son and daughter

Constance: Nicknamed Raven, black/red hair

Dennis Gash: senior in high school, black, football player, 195 lbs

Marquis Melott: owns a strip club, drives a Mercedes, black, bald,

Too many characters to list but a few. Good cast. Good variety of personalities. Typical bad guys who show up in these stories. Girlfriend and cop are expected cast members, too. A few physical descriptions. I’d like more about Mann (tall, thin, short, fat, balding, mole on his left cheek), something so I can get a mental image. It would help me be closer to the character.

Dialogue

Several characters speak without using contractions. Sometimes it’s okay, but it is noticeable and not necessarily how some people speak.

Writing

First person from Mann’s POV.

Reading this and getting to about a third of the way through, I wondered, what now? It seemed like he wrapped up the cases in short order. But no, they linger. And, surprisingly, the story didn’t drag. As mentioned above, enough switching from case to case kept everything moving. Action was good.

There was even an interesting wrinkle at the end that was amusing.

Good read, stand-out PI story.

My Rank:

Purple Belt