Kevin Berry (3)

A most unexpected combination of noir and comic/cartoonish stylings, SHOOTING MESSENGERS is the opening salvo in a series tagged as Quake City Investigations. Launching pretty well straight into the action, readers are introduced to two main investigating characters - PI Danny Ashford and Investigative reporter Deepa Banwait who find themselves working together to solve what looks like a random serial killer - although all of the victims are postal workers or couriers (hence SHOOTING show more MESSENGERS).

I have to admit that at the start of this novel I really had absolutely no idea what was going on, and the mix of such unusual stylings was ... well unexpected ... to say the least. But the banter between the two main characters, and the intrigue of a random serial killer really worked, as did the idea that Deepa was after a story and Danny was there to help her do that.

At points SHOOTING MESSENGERS even veered slightly towards psychological thriller, all these "types" interwoven with some dryly funny humour, and some slightly daft location naming, feeding into the slight cartoonish overlay. The only downside was a few leaps in the narrative that really took some gymnastics to vault over, but all in all this was a most unexpected, and extremely enjoyable opening gambit in something that's hopefully intended to build into a series. If nothing else, it was remarkedly different from anything else I've read recently.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/shooting-messengers-kevin-berry show less

I've gotten a bit out of wack, but I think TO KILL A CONMAN is the third in the Quake City Investigations series (following on from SHOOTING MESSENGERS and THE POSSUM FUR PLOT). Either way it didn't matter, having read the first this one just flowed on, with central character PI Danny Ashford and the Quake City world. There's a map at the start of the novel to give you a flavour for this fictional place.

Comic, noir, cartoonish and really very engaging, the Quake City Investigations novels show more are an unusual combination of styles, featuring the aforementioned Danny Ashford and his sidekick Investigative reporter Deepa Banwait. I say sidekick but the working relationship between these two is as "unstraightforward" as just about everything in this series.

In this case, Ashford is mightily pissed off when a scammer hacks his bank card, leaving him broke and more than a bit desperate. Whilst also stepping up to help out a neighbour being threatened by a decidedly sleezy boss. The hacker, meanwhile, a man with a scheme or scam always on the go, shows up dead leaving Ashford with a name and reputation clearing task as well.

Needless to say the style here is very unusual. Following on from the first book I read it's sort of noir, sort of psychological thriller, sort of Dick Tracey cartoonish, sort of crime fiction, very funny, bit energiser bunny in some places, big leapy in others, entertainment in the main. Very different, and very enjoyable. Now just need to find the time to plug the gap that is THE POSSUM FUR PLOT.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/kill-conman-kevin-berry show less