Mike Jastrzebski

"Key Lime Blues" is a light-hearted private investigator mystery story that pays homage to Travis McGee by being placed in the paradise of key West, Florida, and pays homage to Ed Noon by adding in hilarious touches such as psychics named Elvis. It is a story of a reluctant detective, who now tends bar in Dirty Alvin's, and who is stuck in the middle of an investigation involving a stripper, a gang of hoods, a missing set of diamonds, and bodies that keep washing up.

It is a fast read that show more is filled with light banter when the hoods aren't
hunting down the protagonist and his charge. The lead character, Wes Darling, is a guy who explains that, when he worked for his mother's PI firm, his drug of choice was Prozac, but since moving to Key West
amidst quitting the business, found that key lime pie works just as well. He just never felt comfortable with dealing with the deceit, the dead bodies, and the cops. He was also haunted by a case he was
involved in where a fifteen-year-old kidnap victim met her demise.

According to his mother, he was "the result of a wild weekend in Acapulco with a Vietnam vet who suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder." Wes' mother is also an intriguing character with a deep, raspy voice, the product of smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, and can swear "like a sailor doused in rum."

The missing stripper here is Destiny, a six-foot tall red-headed Amazon who Wes couldn't possibly forget. She might be gorgeous, but she was also a little nuts, that is, if you think leaving a set of diamonds with a psychic who fancied himself as the return of Elvis nuts. show less

Because I'm familiar with Mike Jastrzebski's writing and his blog WriteOnTheWater.com, I downloaded Dog River Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery) fully expecting a nonstop adventure. I also looked forward to the general backdrop of sailing off the Florida--or, in this case, Alabama--coast, and an engaging hero in the person of Wes Darling, who lives on his sailboat, Rough Draft.

What I didn't expect, though, was the beauty of the language, the way Jastrzebski took me to the Mobile marina ("as the show more anchor chain was dragged up from the water it made a loud rattling sound that reminded me of an angry castle ghost in a B movie") or a parking lot ("buried in a misty cocoon...cars moved in and out of focus like spectral derelicts in an ocean of opaque fleece") or a, perhaps, abandoned motel room ("soft light cast a glow on the shaded window like Tinkerbell searching for the lost boys").

I loved this book--not just for where it took me, but for where it made me afraid of going. Happily, Wes Darling--as he, albeit unwillingly, explores the secrets his estranged family has kept long-hidden--is made of sterner stuff. show less

If you like your PI a bit clueless, this is your guy. Not to worry--he fortunately never comes up against anyone very clever. It was difficult to care much about his romantic involvement with either woman, or about the quest. The thief and his henchman were dumb as bricks. Darling spends a lot of time feeling tired and "blue." Small wonder; I felt the same. A book like this is frustrating because the author is obviously talented. There's simply nothing to really sink your teeth into, nothing show more to haunt you, nothing to make you think. He could have done so much more with this... show less

Perhaps this really deserves 3 stars, but it wasn't really a mystery as I had expected, so I was disappointed. This is much more of a thriller-suspense book, as the villains are identified about a third of the way into the book. It did have some good twists, but the basic premise seemed a bit flawed. This former P.I. doesn't care that his newly-discovered cousin lies to him from the very beginning, makes no attempt to discover why it would be so terrible to let the police handle the theft or show more why it was important to the old man to have it returned... this stretched my suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point! show less