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The author leaves no room for doubt as to who were his literary influences while writing his first novel. In the acknowledgment section he thanks Jan Burke, Dennis Lehane, Robert Parker, amongst others for their friendships and literary accomplishments that helped him inspire to write The Dark Side. It was a good thing he did. Shermanís main character is Jack Murphy, a former cop now working as a private investigator in Los Angeles. As the novel begins, Raymond Sanders wants to hire Murphy in trying to find his missing, sixteen-year-old daughter. She has disappeared from her home in Wisconsin and her father has good reason to believe that she is in L.A. Sanders had hired another detective to find his daughter Cassie but is found executed. Murphy decides to take the case that will cause him a deep impact with his life on the personal level and the emotional level. Things will never be the same by the end of the book. The main problem with The Dark Side is the authorís lack of originality in creating his shamus character. He borrows from so many mystery authors that readers might dismiss Shermanís main character as just another template. Jack Murphy is a sarcastic wise ass that acts like Robert Craisís fictional L.A. detective, Elvis Cole. His investigative partner is an ex-con named Arturo who is the Hawk to Jackís Spencer and has the annoying habit on ending every conversation with his boss with the name Holmes. His Della Street (or Miss Lemon) is Nadia Berlisi, a resourceful girl Friday who is in love with her boss, but he does not have a clue after all their years of working together. During the course of the investigation, Murphyís tips lead him to a child pornography ring run by a powerful man. This head honcho is a big wig and the main contributor to the police fund that even Tyrone, Jackís police contact, does not want to touch. The detective instead finds ways to annoy this guy until he threatens Murphy with having his license suspended. All in a dayís work. The plot of this novel is something taken from a Dennis Lehane novel in which the heroes goes to the underbelly of the beast but has a good laugh about it. The crime ends in a way Patrick Kenzie would end the case by bringing poetic justice to all the participants. The only element that is unique in Shermanís novel is the ending and epilogue. The lead character receives a gift at the end of the book that should impact him in many different ways. Only time will tell how this story will develop. It is a good way to bring the character in a new direction making him different from all the other mystery detectives in action today. As a first novel, it is fairly average. New readers might enjoy learning about the characters and having a good laugh. Hard core mystery fans might feel ripped-off after having read the book. Here is one, Holmes.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, November 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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