From Publishers Weekly
In his fiction debut, newspaper reporter Swanson introduces a retro Dallas PI in a complex blackmail scam that gets out of hand. Jack Flippo, who slept his way (with a drug dealer's wife) out of his job in the DA's office, is reduced to spying for a sleazoid lawyer named Hal. A woman named Paula hires Hal to get the dirt on Buddy George, a smooth-talking motivational speaker with a taste for flesh. Paula sets Buddy up for a hot night with sweet manicurist Sharronda, with Jack in the next room to take pictures. When Buddy gets tough, Jack rescues Sharronda. The ensuing complications, involving Sharronda's boyfriend and Hal's psychotic muscleman, result in murder as well as blackmail and entanglements of the heart: Jack, not known for smart thinking around the fairer sex, falls for Paula, whose greed has jump-started the entire caper. The local color is fairly muted--the tale could be taking place in any city with a hot summer and a motel strip--and the plotting doesn't spring enough surprises to satisfy. Jack, who has lousy sleeping and eating habits, eventually contrives a clever fate for the unjust, but he stays a small-time PI, despite his Big D setting.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Booklist
Jack Flippo, on the fast track at the Dallas DA's office, unwittingly beds the wife of a drug kingpin. By the time Jack's realized his egregious error, he's out on his ear, divorced, depressed, and broke. Reduced to taking odd jobs, he obliges a detective friend who asks him to photograph the infidelities of sleazy entrepreneur Buddy George. Jack, with his unerring nose for trouble, gets more than the picture he bargained for when his photographic snoopfest reveals Buddy's penchant for weird sex. Soon Jack finds himself involved with blackmail, murder, and a cast of unforgettable characters including Teddy Deuce, a moronic, muscle-flexing thug whose dearest ambition is to have his own game show, and icily gorgeous Paula Fontaine, Buddy's shrewd, sexy, sans-scruples assistant. First-time author Swanson has written a wonderfully offbeat story that's darkly sinister, terrifically funny, and oddly touching. Jack Flippo's head is screwed on straight, his heart's in the right place (despite his efforts to make us believe otherwise), and he's exactly the kind of guy we want on our side.
Emily Melton
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
