Tonight I Said Goodbye (2004)

One of those books that makes the point that the Russian mafia are the biggest, baddest bad guys around one more time. ( )

My blog post about this book is at this link . ( )

Witty dialog between the partners Perry and Prichard, and a fair amount of action. A not too intolerable variation of (nearly) sleeping with the killer. One wonders if the depiction of the Russian mob is accurate. It was enough to give the series a chance. ( )

Never thought I'd be reading a crime fiction series based in Cleveland, but here I am, enjoying it, and after having read the first book in the series now plan to read the remaining three. Joe and Lincoln are former Cleveland cops, relatively new in the PI business. They get involved with what appears to be a suicide and a missing spouse and child. But as the story unfolds the Russian Mafia, and a number of other bad guys rear their heads. The plot is interesting, good pace, weaves all over, delivers a bit of a twist, and a (not overdone) climax or two. The characters swap more than a fair share of wisecracks, but fortunately stay below the Elvis-Joe threshold. There is a faithful girlfriend who really isn't a girlfriend, but then again....This book rests less on motivation and character analysis in contrast to a Sophie Hannah, Mark Billingham or Elizabeth George. And it doesn't tie back to events of 30 years ago, as is very popular in a lot of crime fiction today. So I'll read the next Lincoln Perry (he's the narrator) of this (so far) four book series and we'll take it from there. PS: Can't say that this book awakened me to a long list of Great Places to See and Things To Do While in Cleveland. ( )

I have read a few reviews here and there on this series and this author. I am glad I followed my instincts and bought this thriller and read it pretty much immediately upon its arrival. I had an agenda as I have been neglecting my thriller and suspense books on Mt Git'r'Read in favor of the cozies, UF, and other mysteries. That's not a bad thing, all the books have been pretty sweeeeet....but my dad is coming out in August and we trade thrillers and suspense between the three of us (Seester, Dad and moi) and I have been lax in the trading on my part.
SO...I read this, what turned out to be, superb thriller by this new-to-me author, Michael Koryta.
This book had me squinching my toes up and have some wildass dreams (it was my bedside book) of Russians chasing me in the pool and off of balconies. At least, in the dream, I had a bigass gun.
Lincoln Perry is a flawed character with an intriguing past of disgrace and looking to redeem himself, sort of. He and his partner, Joe, are good at what they do as private investigators. They are hired by the father of a presumed suicide victim. The father wants to clear his son's name and he thinks his son was murdered instead of having committed suicide. There is more to the case than meets the eye and all hell breaks loose.
Anything else will be spoiler city, so I will leave you with this...if you like a tightly honed, superbly written thriller that Lee Child called, "A terrific,first-class debut full of suspense, tension, tricks, and charm." Then this book is for you!
Five terrific, first-class beans..... ( )