Jon A. Jackson

A fun romp with Detective Fang, but this time off his home turf of Detroit and in Montana chasing nemesis, Joe Service, but primarily chasing Helen Sedlacek, killer of Carmine Busoni, Detroit mob boss. Fun stuff with Service's security measures and his recovery from a near fatal gun shot wound to the head. Some interesting female activity at various sources of warm bathing water. It is hard to say if this book needed to be longer--might have just added to that dread plot device, the show more excessive explanation. Several plot lines left up in the air. Prefer Fang on his home turf. show less

This is becoming less like a series of novels and more like a serially presented story. I am not fond of this development. Mulheisen was at his best as a Detroit cop pursuing Detroit cases. This traipsing all over the greater midwest requires too much explanation to make it plausible. Still, the explanation is skillfully done and does not weigh down the narrative too much. When Mulheisen was walking downtown Salt Lake City, I fleetingly thought if he might run into Moroni Traveler.

Another new mystery/police series that I discovered through book reviews, this time involving Detective Sergeant Mulheisen, set in Detroit. I think I read somewhere some comparisons to Elmore Leonard, but if so, I don't really see them. Leonard is a master of dialogue and what feels right for the voice of any particular character. Not to say that Jackson is deficient in this regard, but I didn't have the same sense of intensity that I usually find in Leonard. Perhaps partly because of the show more style of this story which is told in the present through Mulheisen's eyes, and the past through a series of diary-like notebooks. Mulheisen's old partner, Grootka, a legend in his time as a no-nonsense, very tough cop, now dead, left a series of notebooks detailing his accidental involvement with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. The books are fed to Mulheisen one at a time by various characters who were also involved at the time, and he slowly pieces together the story of Hoffa's death. The past and the future come together as one of the main protagonists in the murder of Hoffa is now a mob boss in Detroit, and suspicious that new investigations might implicate him. Another difference from Leonard is that Jackson is obviously a jazz fan and he labours lovingly over descriptions of players and styles of jazz; none of Leonard's characters, that I can recall, reflect to that extent.

The story is well-written; the characters well-drawn and believable; and the action is hard and direct and well-described when it comes. In the latter there certainly are parallels with Leonard. I will look for others in the series. show less

Not quite as good as the previous installments, but still above average. Fang's opponent gets away again. Good stuff about the effect of childhood grief.