Life’s a Beach Then You Die (Max Fried Mystery Book 1) Falafel Jones (Author)
Book Description
When a smooth-talking lawyer persuades Max to find a deceased client’s estate assets, Max takes the job, thinking it will be a snooze. Instead, an old killer with a new identity breaks into his home and steals the client’s computer.
Max doesn’t know the computer contains clues to a 20 year-old murder but then, the murdering thief doesn’t know Max stored a copy of the stolen computer on his iPod. Too bad for the bad guy, the copy contains evidence that could get him the death penalty.
Now, Max is the last one alive who knows why people are dying. If he can outwit the killer, he can return to his bar stool on the beach. If not, he’ll be victim number five.
My Take:
Cute, punchy with acerbic wit thrown in to make the story wiz on by.
Retired Investigator from ‘up north’ turned private PI ‘down south’ sounds like an old dried up, tried-and-true detective novel. But turn the old PI from a trench coat wearing, cigar smoking wiseacre into a savvy, athletic and sexy 60-something curious husband with a wife for an equal, and you have a great premise for a new type of detective. This reminds me of another older detective from another book I reviewed earlier, however, this is a husband only detective, not with the wife involved.
Jones does a decent job moving the story along, introducing both character and place with equal aplomb. There weren’t any dry paragraphs that I glazed over. He used place effectively, moving along when the plot needed it. I found the characters three dimensional and even the plot-point people were short and sweet, doing something while giving some much needed information. The Lawyer/friend, Cop and PI worked well together and at times the reader doesn’t know who is friend or foe.
Jones has a great talent for writing and am looking forward to other books. I give 4 stars.
Brick ONeil 