Search - The Cleveland Local (Milan Jacovich)

I remembered that years ago, I read one of Les Roberts' series about Cleveland PI Milan Jacovich. I had liked it, but the library didn't have any more of them, so I didn't read any more.

Then, along comes PBS, so I ordered one--this one, The Cleveland Local. I also love to listen to books on tape, so I bought another one on eBay, thinking how nice it would be to have two Jacovich stories ready to hand.

I read the book and liked it. Then I dug out the tape and discovered it was the same dang book--this one. Sigh. The best laid plans....

Milan Jacovich is Cleveland's version of Spenser (Boston), Amos Walker (Detroit), Matt Scudder (NY), any number of other NY hardboiled private eyes you could mention. As with those characters, it's fun to learn about the culture of the city where they live. There's plenty of info about Cleveland in this story, but that's not the big thing.

Jacovich is a pleasant guy to ride around with. I enjoy his observations and his values. The story is interesting, exciting, and sufficiently twisty to satisfy most Shamus-loving readers. It does not suffer from best-seller syndrome (where all characters have to be super-powerful, super-evil, super-beautiful or -handsome and the fate of the free world usually hangs in the balance)--instead, we follow a normal, moral, good guy around as he doggedly follows the trail of clues to find out who committed the murder and why.

If you need best-seller syndrome, thrill-a-minute plots, stay away. If you like a good mystery story, Les Roberts delivers.