Mick 'Brew' Axbrewder lost his licence as a private investigator after he accidentally shot his brother, and so now works in partnership with a tough P.I., Ginny Fistoulari. His on-off relationship with Ginny used to involve her trying to keep him sober enough to help her solve cases, but since she lost her hand in an explosion, which Brew blames himself for, Ginny has changed and Brew doesn't know how to help her. Fortunately for both of them, a call from Reg Haskell gives them something new to focus on. Haskell is chief accountant at a bank which disguises itself as an ice-cream parlour. A cheat and a womaniser, he's got himself involved in some very nasty business, with some very nasty people. And he needs Brew and Ginny to protect him. But once they start wading through the countless lies and bodies, they begin to realise how messy things can get...
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From Publishers Weekly
With 2001's The Man Who Fought Alone, Donaldson picked up the story line of an earlier series of original paperbacks (The Man Who Killed His Brother; The Man Who Risked His Partner; The Man Who Tried to Get Away) he wrote in the mid-'80s under the pseudonym Reed Stephens. They starred an unlikely pair of private eyes, Mick Axbrewder and Ginny Fistoulari, and in this, the second of the paperbacks to be "expanded" and reissued as a hardcover, Mick-after mortally wounding his cop brother in a shooting accident-is struggling to stay sober while Ginny, his partner and sometime lover, is adjusting to the loss of her left hand in an act of heroism, while wrestling with bouts of self-loathing. Following the murders of two minor mob hoods in their small southwestern city, Gin and Brew are hired to protect Reg Haskell, a bank executive, from an alleged death threat by the reigning crime boss, el Senor. The crotchety protagonists find that their client's story is chock full of lies, however. Among other problems, the charismatic (but married) Haskell is a "sexual buccaneer" with a long trail of winsome, brokenhearted bank employees in his wake. Haskell's incessant lying means an ever-changing explanation of his quandary before Gin and Brew-after a couple of near-miss assassination attempts-are finally able to get down to the real facts. Although fans of Donaldson's Thomas Covenant fantasy series should provide a ready readership base, this attempt at hard-boiled, Chandleresque gumshoeing feels a bit dated and flat.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Popular fantasy author Donaldson wrote three paperback private-eye novels in the 1980s under the pseudonym Reed Stephens. Now he is revising the novels and reissuing them in hardcover; this is book 2 in the series. Donaldson, whose fantasies often star flawed characters who struggle to overcome infirmities, uses the same formula here: private eye Ginny Fistoulari has one hand (the other was blown off by a bomb), and her partner Mick Axbrewder is an alcoholic who accidentally killed his own brother. The reader gets beat over the head with the angst of the protagonists a few more times than necessary, but Donaldson keeps the story moving nicely. The PIs, hired to protect an accountant who apparently is on someone's hit list, soon find themselves in a string of confrontations with bad cops, a well-armed wacko, and gangsters preying on L.A.'s Latino community. The setting rings true, and the characters have depth. This straightforward hard-boiled mystery, written in the classic first-person style, will attract both fans of the genre and crossover readers drawn by the Donaldson name. Elliott Swanson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Six months after that bomb took Ginny's left hand off, she still hadn't gotten over it. Read the first page
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Six months after that bomb took Ginny's left hand off, she still hadn't gotten over it. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Harriet Klausner
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
In Puerto del Sol in the southwest desert, private sleuth Mick "Brew" Axbrewder feels self loathing and guilt. During an alcoholic stupor, he killed his brother. Adding to his despondency, his detective partner and lover at that time Ginny Fistoulari blew off her hand with a grenade saving his butt from his latest blunder. Though a doubting Thomas about his abilities, Brew struggles with sobriety vowing in a personal covenant to take care of the depressed Gin, who has not mentally recovered from her trauma.
Gin and Brew are hired to protect First Puerta del Sol National Bank Chief Accountant Reg Haskell. He tells them he lost a lot of money gambling at the El Machismo and has been threatened if he fails to pay off his debt. Though they doubt Reg's claim, Brew serves as his personal bodyguard. However as the sleuths investigate his story they find other fabrications and conclude the entire tale is fiction. When several murder attempts occur, Brew and Gin struggle to put aside their personal problems to uncover the person wanting their mendacious client dead.
THE MAN WHO RISKED HIS PARTNER is the second tale of an expansion of novels written in the 1980s under the name Reed Stephens (see THE MAN WHO FOUGHT ALONE). The story line mixes a hardboiled detective story inside an angst relationship drama. Though Reg is a great support character with his changing explanations fun to follow, the tale suffers from an overabundance of negativity. While Gin behaves semi comatose barely living, Brew is the poster boy for guilty loser. Their angst overwhelms a solid private detective tale, depressing the reader.
Harriet Klausner
Format:Mass Market Paperback
i would expect no less from Stephen Donaldson writing under an asumed name, author of the Gap series, a brilliant mystery novel if you like them this is a good one
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The 2nd book in a 3 book series by Reed Stephens. Brew, feeling responsible for Ginny's disabliity, forces Ginny to take a job as body guards. They almost end up the targets of a mob hit. A great follow up to The Man Who Killed His Brother
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