Helpful Score: 3
Jeff Abbott is a totally engaging writer who knows how to tell a good tale. He is succinct and sees no need to pad the book with a lot of extra unncessary detail just to bulk up the book. This is the first in a new Whit Mosely series that takes place in a small town on the Texas Gulf coast. Not garishly violent like so many books, not totally laced with four letter words, not overly heavy on sex--just a good balance that makes this an engrossing read.
From Publishers Weekly:
Tensions rise in Port Leo, Tex., when porn star Pete Hubble, the black sheep son of a senator, returns to uncover the secrets surrounding his brother's long-ago disappearance. Pete brings some heavy baggage with him, the least of which is his producer and girlfriend, Velvet Mojo. When Pete turns up dead, seemingly by his own hand, rookie Judge Whit Mosley and police detective Claudia Salazar open an investigation that may cost him the election and them their lives. Agatha and Macavity award-winner Abbott (Distant Blood) populates his narrative with a number of colorful characters including a pompous southern sheriff, a wrestler turned evangelist, a shadowy psychotic killer named Blade, a corrupt female senator and a delightful sidekick who sticks to his ethics even if they don't always coincide with judicial law. Despite the author's penchant for gauche one-liners ("I been in law enforcement thirty years, partner, and you're wet behind both ears and balls."), he offers fresh, original descriptions and well-written fistfights. This intricately woven, fast-moving mystery will keep readers guessing until the novel's final confrontation.
This is a good, twisty mystery with just enough dark humor to lighten the tense atmosphere. If you like P.J. Tracy and Tim Cockey, you'll probably like this series.
Tensions rise in Port Leo, Tex., when porn star Pete Hubble, the black sheep son of a senator, returns to uncover the secrets surrounding his brother's long-ago disappearance. Pete brings some heavy baggage with him, the least of which is his producer and girlfriend, Velvet Mojo. When Pete turns up dead, seemingly by his own hand, rookie Judge Whit Mosley and police detective Claudia Salazar open an investigation that may cost him the election and them their lives. Agatha and Macavity award-winner Abbott (Distant Blood) populates his narrative with a number of colorful characters including a pompous southern sheriff, a wrestler turned evangelist, a shadowy psychotic killer named Blade, a corrupt female senator and a delightful sidekick who sticks to his ethics even if they don't always coincide with judicial law. Despite the author's penchant for gauche one-liners ("I been in law enforcement thirty years, partner, and you're wet behind both ears and balls."), he offers fresh, original descriptions and well-written fistfights. This intricately woven, fast-moving mystery will keep readers guessing until the novel's final confrontation.
This is a good, twisty mystery with just enough dark humor to lighten the tense atmosphere. If you like P.J. Tracy and Tim Cockey, you'll probably like this series.
Helpful Score: 2
Intense, twist and turn a minute, entertaining book.
Helpful Score: 1
This was a very good read.
Helpful Score: 1
You'd think things could be simple in a small town where everybody know everybody and their grandparents, but not in this twisted plot by Jeff Abbott. It is the first book of his I have read, I will definitely read more. Our protagonists are a female police detective and a smalltown justice of the peace. Takes place in coastal suth Texas, my neck of the woods.
