Easy

This was DePoy's first novel, the start of the Flap Tucker series, each of which has the word "Easy" in the title. Why Easy? It's the name of the nightclub Flap's best friend Dalliance opened in the old "Easy Lube" garage building in Atlanta. (The old signage was edited so that it just reads "Easy.") With main characters named Flap and Dalliance, how could a story be boring?

It's a quick, easy, fun read. It's quirky, offbeat, and filled with colorful characters -- even the murder victims. Flap himself is a trip -- a PI with an almost mystical gift for finding things, a fairly tough gumshoe who uses old-fashioned legwork coupled with meditation to solve his cases. Yes, meditation. And there's plenty to meditate upon as Flap ponders these show more questions:

What do the murders of a tall, red-headed transvestite found dead inside a crude drawing of a pentagram and a couple of topless dancers found decomposing in the trunk of a Buick have in common with each other and with the disappearance of the alleged wife of Flap's friend Lenny? And was Lenny really married to the missing woman? And did she even really exist? And what, if anything, does Tibet have to do with it all?

The answers to these and other pressing crime issues -- along with some laughs and a few neat plot twists -- can be found in the pages of Easy. The ending might seem to hold rather convoluted motives for this rash of crime, but what the heck. Read the news: people do the darndest things for the craziest reasons, even in real life.

(Note: DePoy has another, more recent series, the Fever Devlin series, which is set in rural Georgia. I like those books, too.) show less

I loved this book!
This is about a private investigator Flap Tucker and his friend Dalliance Oglethorp (great names!), based in Atlanta, who get involved in an investigation involving a "dead drag queen in a pentogram, topless dancers stuffed in a trunk, a pretty blue Buick...........
So begins a trawl for clues and answers to some of the strange goings on in the city.
The style of writing is reminiscent of 50's "Noir" stories.
There are more "Easy " stories by Phillip DePoy to be read and I shall be looking for more!
A great read!
I received a copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

Flap Tucker is just a little different. A Zen practitioner who has a reputation for finding things, he is soon on his way, not quite willingly, to the Georgia Backwoods. There he will find himself involved in the disappearance of a young girl, the ghost of another and some mighty strange occurrences and some eccentric Southern characters. All is not as it appears in these hills.

Fast, easy, written in a light hearted manner. n enjoyable series with an enjoyable lead characters.

ARC from Netgalley.

Recommend this mystery, different but worth while.