Private Detective story.

This is a British novel. There are a lot of British cultural references and British vocabulary and I am American so I think I lost some flavor. I did understand the plot, characters and so on and so forth. I liked the book and the story. ( )

Classic private eye novel, with heavy drinking P. I. , lots of murders and thugs galore. Clean language and minimal violence for a recommendation to my 86 year old mom. I loved the British slang and setting, but just didn't fall head over heels for "Kenny." Good enough for a quick rainy day read, though. ( )

Kenny Galbraith is a low level London skip tracer and is hired by a sleazy old acquaintance to find his daughter, but there are plenty of people who don't want him to find her or find out why she is missing. Clever plotting, interesting characters, not least Kenny and cracking humerous dialogue and observations made it a real pleasure to read and constantly put a smile on my face. ( )

Kenny Gabriel is three years away from turning sixty, has forty-three quid in the bank and is occasionally employed to find people who would rather not be found. Broke, clientless and depressed, he knows things can’t get much worse. Then he’s summoned to the office of London media magnate Frank Parr, whose daughter, Harry, is missing—and there’s ten grand on the table to get her back.

It’s a lot of money, and God knows Kenny needs the cash. But he and Frank have a history he’d rather not revisit. Kenny worked for him in the seventies, when Frank was the head of a Soho magazine empire and owner of an infamous nightclub. And Kenny might still be working for Frank now—if he hadn’t witnessed his boss brutally torturing another employee. ( )

So this was my pick from June's Kindle First options...

And I thought it was all right.

The book had an intriguing murder mystery that wasn't easy to unravel and kept me guessing right up until the climax. The protagonist, Kenny, was a reasonably competent investigator, and all the moves he made throughout the book made sense and were generally intelligent decisions.

But I had a few issues that kept me from rating the book higher.

First and foremost, having Kenny as the protagonist makes for a fairly depressing story. He's a lonely man heading into retirement age with no meaningful relationships or retirement funds saved up, and his personal issues drag down what is already a sad story—one where literally nothing gets any happier at the end.

Secondly, I didn't like how, in the end, Kenny ended up being pretty ineffectual in the grand scheme of things. I don't like it when the main character ends up on the sidelines, when things merely happen to them instead of them actively engaging in the conflict.

Third, there were a few specific events that got glossed over during the wrap-up at the end instead of being addressed as they should have been, and on top of that, the ending actually felt pretty rushed to me. Once second, something really significant is happening to Kenny, and if feels like another story arc is about to start, and the the next second, we're at the climax and that last twist is basically thrown in the trash.

So, overall, I thought this book was okay, but I probably won't be reading any other books in this series, simply because there are several mystery/crime series I would much prefer to read over this. ( )