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jakewritesbooks's review
4.0
Lucked out that I finished this one on the last day of my Kindle Unlimited subscription as it’s the only one in the Dan Fortune series my local library doesn’t have.
One of the best of the four I’ve read so far, maybe my favorite after Act of Fear. Michael Collins/Dennis Lynds takes the story out of New York City, or at least large parts of it, to investigate corruption in an upstate New York town. I always love a good tale of municipal corruption and there’s plenty of it here. But because this is a Dan Fortune novel, and this series is so clearly inspired by Ross Macdonald’s Archer series, eventually, we get to the dirty family dealings. And that’s when the rug of the plot gets pulled out from underneath.
Now, I’m not always a fan of the rug getting pulled out. It can be a lazy plot device. But here, it works and it works for reasons I can’t speak about without spoiling anything. It makes the story about something else but in a way that feels true to the struggle of identity and family life. And as this series has shown through the first four books, it’s not afraid to shy away from social issues. It deals with a big one here that, again, I can’t talk about because of spoilers. And there is a bit too much of the “Proud Liberal White Man” tone in how Collins deals with it. But it’s something you rarely see in mystery novels and I was impressed.
Gonna take a break from this series for a bit but it’s worth returning to.
One of the best of the four I’ve read so far, maybe my favorite after Act of Fear. Michael Collins/Dennis Lynds takes the story out of New York City, or at least large parts of it, to investigate corruption in an upstate New York town. I always love a good tale of municipal corruption and there’s plenty of it here. But because this is a Dan Fortune novel, and this series is so clearly inspired by Ross Macdonald’s Archer series, eventually, we get to the dirty family dealings. And that’s when the rug of the plot gets pulled out from underneath.
Now, I’m not always a fan of the rug getting pulled out. It can be a lazy plot device. But here, it works and it works for reasons I can’t speak about without spoiling anything. It makes the story about something else but in a way that feels true to the struggle of identity and family life. And as this series has shown through the first four books, it’s not afraid to shy away from social issues. It deals with a big one here that, again, I can’t talk about because of spoilers. And there is a bit too much of the “Proud Liberal White Man” tone in how Collins deals with it. But it’s something you rarely see in mystery novels and I was impressed.
Gonna take a break from this series for a bit but it’s worth returning to.
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