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Mike Duncavan is an ex-cop, ex-lawyer, ex-husband (twice over). As he puts it: "Fired, divorced, disbarred, divorced -- that's the order." His temper and impetuous nature have got him into all sorts of trouble in the past and you can just tell that, as a PI, he's going to get into even more. He's hired by an old lawyer pal, Artemus Shumway, to look into a mysterious murder case that happened several years before. A seemingly hard-working family man was murdered in an apartment building in a rough part of Chicago. Nobody knows why he was there, or who committed the murder, but Shumway's client is the owner of the apartment building, who is being held liable for letting the building run down and, basically, creating the conditions which allowed the crime to take place. Duncavan is up against a deadline, as well as lots of lies and unanswered questions. He is hired to try to prove that the landlord is not to blame but he's sidetracked by some intriguing events. In several way, Duncavan is a typical, cliched private eye -- tough, womanising, hard-drinking; a 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking' type of guy, but in other ways he's original. As an ex-lawyer, there are some excellent legal insights which are seamlessly slipped in, making the book an interesting read. I didn't find Duncavan a particularly likeable character, and some of his actions and thoughts were quite off-putting. However, he's honest with himself and the reader about his shortcomings, and he does have a certain charm and humour about him that kept me on his side. I found some of the supporting characters quite flat, and inconsistent; however the plot is solid and intriguing, and the sense of place is excellent. This is a first novel which has some problems but which shows a good deal of promise.
Reviewed by Donna Moore, May 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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