Ballast Point Breakdown (Rolly Waters) by Corey Lynn Fayman

In this fourth novel in the Rolly Waters series the guitar-playing private detective gets pulled into a strange case involving dolphins when a woman crawls from a boat on fire and screams about the return of Arion. The investigation touches some weird and interesting areas like dolphins used for warfare, a very dysfunctional family and the involvement of a punk rocker and animal-rights organzations.
There are so many things pulled into the story that it can get a bit confusing sometimes. I have to applaud the author though for making this a tale very different plotwise from most PI stories. The characters are very original. I especially enjoyed Rolly's dad who gets some very funny lines.
And of course, I love PI's who are involved in the music biz like my own Lenny Parker.

Free Fiction: Doggone Part Nine (A Lenny Parker serial) by Jochem Vandersteen

Lenny Parker, PI / roadie / metalhead is back in a new serial, blending a bit of comedy with a hardboiled detective story, one feet into metal culture. This time he is hired to track down a missing dog. Read the other parts here.

TEN

The cops had shown up pretty quickly. They arrested all of the spectators who hadn’t fled away yet. Among them was Cliff. It was satisfying to see him get led away in handcuffs. Among the dogs in the cages in the building was Ozzy. Obviously Cliff had dognapped it to sell to Luis and his men. An animal protection unit showed up to take care of them and managed to catch the loose dogs.

The cop who seemed to be in charge, a forty-something black man with glasses and a big moustache told Lenny, “Even though you called this one in we will need to cuff you as well until we’ve sorted this all out.”

“I understand,” Lenny said. “I’m just glad you guys are here. I hope these animals get back to their owners or a good home.”

“Yeah. I have to admit I wouldn’t mind throwing these assholes in the ring with these dogs so they can do some justice of their own,” the cop said.

Casey walked in, flanked by a young cop. She was wearing handcuffs. He told the black cop, “This lady was in a car outside and got kind of aggressive when I prohibited her from going inside.”

“I just wanted to make sure my friend is okay,” Casey said.

“Calling me a pig wasn’t the best way to achieve that,” the young cop said.

“Excuse my dear friend,” Lenny pleaded. “She can get a bit worked up sometimes but means well.”

“Yeah. Uncuff us. We’re not the bad guys here. We just blew the lid off a whole dognapping ring and illegal dog fighting organization. We’re heroes.”

“We’ll work that out at the station,” the black cop decided.

*

After the paperwork was done Casey and Lenny were allowed to go home again. No charges were pressed against Casey after she suggested the papers would be interested in hearing how she was arrested after freeing helpless animals from captivity. The cops didn’t need the bad press from animal rights organizations and she got off with just a slap on the wrist.

They visited Janson a day later, together with Janice. It was so good to see Ozzy reunited with the old man. The dog didn’t leave Janson’s side.

“I want to say I’m very grateful for your help. All of you. I really appreciate your help too, Janice. Please come over for coffee more often,” Janson said.

“I’d love to. And you should come over for diner sometime.”

Janson handed a crate to Lenny. “Here’s the Black Sabbath albums I promised you. A very small price for the danger you put yourself in.”

“I’m not sure I can really take this,” Lenny said. “Honestly, I think it was just my civic duty to do what I did. I can’t stand animals getting hurt.”

“Please, my hearing isn’t getting any better and I’m getting older. I’d rather leave them to you than my kids who never visit me. Take them.”

Lenny took the crate and looked inside. It was looking inside a treasure chest, but instead of gold doubloons it was filled with vinyl.

THE END

Rolling Thunder (Hammerhead Jed Ounstead) by A.J. Devlin

I just loved the first outing of Jed Ounstead. The wrestling setting and the light sense of humour were awesome. Things get better with this one. The comedy is amped up a bit more and the setting is not only wrestling but also the very interesting roller derby world.
Ex-wrestler Jed Ounstead (now a PI in his dad's firm) is asked by his old friend Stormy Daze to find her roller derby coach who's gone missing some time ago. Investigating he ends up in an S & M club, clashing with a shady rich guy who has his own TV show and more colorful characters than you see on any wrestling show. And then there's those two women he loves but cannot decide on.
There's so many laughs, funny situations and oneliners that I chuckled every page. Don't get me wrong, stuff can get pretty dark as well. And while Jed can be a laidback guy he can get very dark, brooding and gritty as well.
I just love Jed's archetype psycho sidekick Declan! Not only is he a deadly fighter his lines are so incredibly crude and funny... Yeah, this one has everything I love about the genre. Action, laughs, attractive women, mystery.
This one proves the first novel (Cobra Clutch) was not a one hit wonder. Can't wait for the third book.

OUT NOW: the first Lenny Parker collection!

Who likes the Lenny Parker story at my blog? Well, good news! I collected the first four serials in one nifty collection available here.


If you are a regular reader of this blog I'd appreciate you picking it up and spreading the word,

Pick up the book here.

Q & A with John Ryder

John Ryder is the pen name of a British crimewriter  who just came out with the first book in an exciting new series of thrillers starring tough guy loner Grant Fletcher. Of course I wanted to know more...


Q: What makes Grant Fletcher different from other hardboiled characters? 
This is a really good (hard to answer) question as Fletcher has many of the traits found in so many hardboiled characters. He’s comfortable operating alone, ready with his fists when necessary, brave, cynical, and dogged by past events that won’t give him inner peace.
I think his USP has to be that he’s not one of the love-em-and-leave-em characters. His wife died years ago and he still loves her, and to this end he’s never once looked at another woman.

Q: How did you come up with the character? 
I’ve read a lot of books featuring similar characters by authors such as Lee Child, Matt Hilton, Zoe Sharp and many others so I knew the basics that had to be included in a character who features in crime action thrillers. What I wanted to do when building Fletcher was imbue him with enough commonalities to make him familiar, yet also to have enough differences to make him stand out in a crowded field. Fletcher’s back story came from events that happened in the Sam Carver series by Tom Cain. The series ended on a bombshell with a hugely emotional thread that had me wondering about its psychological impact for years afterwards. I’ve been lucky enough to befriend Tom and receive permission to appropriate the event he never tied up. I did of course put my own spin on things and I consider what I have done to be a homage to a fantastic piece of writing rather than a continuation of his character’s story.

Q: What are your thoughts on eBooks? 
I like them for their convenience as commuters approaching the end of a book don’t have to lug their next read along for the journey home and holidaymakers can take a supply of books that don’t require a separate suitace. When it comes to my own reading I’m probably a 70 / 30 split in favour of paper or hardbacks, but that’s largely because I’m fortunate enough to have books sent to me. I also think that ebooks offer fantastic value for money as where else could you get many hours of entertainment for 99p or even £1.99?

 Q: What's next for you and your characters? 
Things are looking busy for myself, Fletcher and Quadrado. Book 2 is written and the copy edits have been sent back so there’s only the proofing stages to go through. The title and blurb are still to be finalised, but book 2 sees Quadrado calling on Fletcher to investigate the murder of her lifelong friend. Naturally for one of my stories, the killing has only just begun.

Q: What do you do when you're not writing? 
All the usual boring stuff. Read, watch TV, support my local football team, socialise with friends and family and plan murders.

Q: How do you promote your work? 
I’m lucky to have a fantastic publicist who does most of the heavy lifting. There are blog tours, social media posts, engaging with readers and writers. Occasionally I’ll run some ads to support what my publisher is doing, but mostly it’s about social media engagement.

Q: What other genres besides crime do you like? 
I tend to be firmly stuck in the crime camp, but I read across almost all of its sub-genreswith the exception of cosy. I tend to mix things up with police procedurals, crime action thrillers, conspiracy thrillers, lost artefact stories and PI fiction to name but a few styles of the crime novels I read.

 Q: In the last century we've seen new waves of PI writers, first influenced by Hammett, then Chandler, Macdonald, Parker, later Lehane. Who do you think will influence the coming generation? 
This is another toughie to answer as I’d be very wary of burdening another writer with expectation, but some authors who write PI style fiction I read are Matt Hilton, LJ Morris and Rob Sinclair.

 Q: Why do you write in this genre? 
Because I get to read the story I want to read is the simple answer, but on a deeper level I think it’s because I love the puzzle element. While it’s always easier to set a puzzle than solve one, I take great enjoyment in seeding in clues and red herrings to misdirect readers while also worrying that I’m either being too obtuse or too obvious. Another great thing about writing crime stories is that I can explore themes and topics that interest me or that I feel ought to be brought to a wider audience.