From Publishers Weekly
A worthy successor to Catching Water in a Net (2000), Abramo's second in the San Francisco-based Jake Diamond PI series is a clever and well-crafted detective novel, gritty enough to satisfy hard-boiled readers but not so dark that it will put off more traditional mystery fans. Hired to break into a local judge's house and extract money and papers from a wall safe, Lefty Wright, a small-time thief, stumbles over the judge's corpse and is immediately surrounded by policemen. Wright later calls Diamond from prison, where he awaits trial for murder, and convinces the PI of his innocence. As Diamond proceeds with his investigation, the police, the governor and especially prosecuting attorney and DA candidate Lowell Ryder all make it very clear that they don't want him involved. When Wright is killed "trying to escape" en route to court, things get really interesting. Scrambling to make a case, Diamond trails crooked cops and even resurrects his dormant acting career to appear in a bit part in a movie to get close to a key suspect. Throughout the book, Diamond is reading Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, which parallels his current case.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
This workmanlike second entry in the Jake Diamond series finds the San Francisco PI searching for the real killer of an unpopular local judge after one of Diamond's clients, an accomplished burglar having a very bad night, is fingered for the murder. The deeper Diamond digs, the more folks end up dead--starting with his client and continuing with a low-level mobster, a misguided rich kid, and a couple of cops. The clues point to a rising-star prosecutor running for district attorney, but Diamond has a rough time making his case. The hard-boiled detective with a soft-boiled heart provides most of the book's low-key charms. Diamond is refreshingly direct with his questioning, listens to his conscience whenever possible, and has a knack for tying classic novels into the action at hand. His football-groupie assistant, Darlene, heads an appealing supporting cast that includes flaky flunky Vinnie "Strings" Stradivarius and Mob-connected confidant Joey Russo. Although the story is light on action and suspense, it's comfort food for PI fans. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Lefty Wright breaks into Judge Chancellor’s empty house easy as pie. He has no clue about why he is being paid such a handsome sum for doing it. But the job description hadn’t mentioned the corpse of a prominent criminal court judge lying halfway under the bed.
Charged with murder, Lefty's SOS zooms over the phone wires and reaches one Jake Diamond, Private Investigator, whom readers met in Abramo’s Private Eye Contest winner, Catching Water in a Net. It’s easy to understand why the unprepossessing guy with grease spots on his only two neckties. Jake is a love. His unexpected skills as an investigator and his assortment of multi-talented friends make him one of the luckiest private investigators West of the Rockies, and maybe East too. He's got Joey Russo - an influential mob boss to most people but a substitute father-figure (with a soupcon of Jewish mother) to Jake. His secretary Darlene runs the office, and does everything but tie his shoes. And no one else has as eager a gofer as Vinnie Strings, so-called because his real name, Stradivarius, is too hard for some to say. And then the reconciliation of Jake and his ex-wife Sally is coming along very nicely indeed.
Jake takes the case, but it soon leads down a series of side paths that sprawl out from Lefty’s prison cell like the tentatcles of an octopus. What’s the real story of the kidnap of the prominent lawyer’s feckless son? What does the policeman named Katt know that he doesn’t want to share with the prisoner’s lawyer? What happened to the Rolex? Did Freddie Cash know ex-con Vic Vagoda? Why was Judge Chancellor so set against Ryder’s candidacy? Where did Vigoda get the two grand? If it all pertained to Lefty’s case, Jake would be justified in looking for the answers. But does it?
Although he encounters more than one homicide on the way to untangling these tangled affairs, Jake Diamond in his second appearance manages not only to be a demon detective, but one who is charming, human and delightfully funny as well.
Charged with murder, Lefty's SOS zooms over the phone wires and reaches one Jake Diamond, Private Investigator, whom readers met in Abramo’s Private Eye Contest winner, Catching Water in a Net. It’s easy to understand why the unprepossessing guy with grease spots on his only two neckties. Jake is a love. His unexpected skills as an investigator and his assortment of multi-talented friends make him one of the luckiest private investigators West of the Rockies, and maybe East too. He's got Joey Russo - an influential mob boss to most people but a substitute father-figure (with a soupcon of Jewish mother) to Jake. His secretary Darlene runs the office, and does everything but tie his shoes. And no one else has as eager a gofer as Vinnie Strings, so-called because his real name, Stradivarius, is too hard for some to say. And then the reconciliation of Jake and his ex-wife Sally is coming along very nicely indeed.
Jake takes the case, but it soon leads down a series of side paths that sprawl out from Lefty’s prison cell like the tentatcles of an octopus. What’s the real story of the kidnap of the prominent lawyer’s feckless son? What does the policeman named Katt know that he doesn’t want to share with the prisoner’s lawyer? What happened to the Rolex? Did Freddie Cash know ex-con Vic Vagoda? Why was Judge Chancellor so set against Ryder’s candidacy? Where did Vigoda get the two grand? If it all pertained to Lefty’s case, Jake would be justified in looking for the answers. But does it?
Although he encounters more than one homicide on the way to untangling these tangled affairs, Jake Diamond in his second appearance manages not only to be a demon detective, but one who is charming, human and delightfully funny as well.
About the Author
Joseph Abramo is a longtime educator, theater producer and director, a stage and screen actor and an arts journalist. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Abramo now lives in Columbia, South Carolina. His first novel, Catching Water in a Net, was w inner of the 2000 St. Martin’s Press PWA Award for the year's best first Private Eye novel.
