From Amazon.com
Joe L. Hensley, a former circuit court judge and lawyer, writes his series of mysteries about a detective with a similar background to his own (
Robak's Witch,
Robak's Fire) with a perfect ear for the nuances of small-time criminality. Now he and Indiana prosecutor Guy M. Townsend have caught that same voice in their first joint effort.
"I might have heard a little," a seedy little coin hustler is telling private eye Al Sears about rumors of a contract on Al's life. "I can't remember where it came from. I just heard it said around, after the story in the papers, that maybe that night at the game might not be the last time someone would try to get you. I guess it's for something bad you did. Bar talk and coin talk is that someone wants you in the grave."
Al, a former hotshot lawyer laid low by booze, is working part-time in the coin shop where he spent much of his former money. When a would-be robber of a poker game turns out to be an unsuccessful assassin, Al is forced to search through the pockets of his past for clues to who might want him dead. A glamorous ex-wife is a good suspect, likewise a couple of supposed pals. Even in the current tidal wave of alcoholic detectives, Sears has enough going for him to make a return visit worth waiting for. --Dick Adler
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
When he hit the bottle, Memphis lawyer Al Sears lost his wife, his practice and his beloved coin collection. Now he's sober, doing a little private investigating and helping out his good pal Ralph in his coin shop. When Al and Ralph become a hit man's apparent target, Al is forced to dig into the dregs of his past to find out who wants him dead and why. Al takes a cavalier approach to his many woes and to the assorted people in his life: Judy, his icy ex-wife; Harlan, his friend, fellow coin collector and a surprisingly wealthy and powerful ex-cop; and Sue, Al's reticent new love. Near the end of the novel, when Al gets clobbered with a shovel, is force-fed a bottle of booze and wakes up drunk on a narrow ledge, readers will agree that this guy has had "cat's lives." Al's an absorbing lead, but there's a paucity of character development here, and co-authors Hensley (Robak's Witch) and Townsend don't do a whole lot with their Memphis setting either. Even so, they exhibit a lean narrative style that's appealing for its lack of pretension.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
