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weaselweader's review
4.0
“I hadn’t planned on being a detective.”
“They don’t teach you anything about guns, dead bodies or cheating spouses in accounting class.”
If Gabriel Ross were a teenager, one might say he was simply looking to find himself. But perhaps it’s better to say that, after a divorce and a job termination, Ross was forced into the unwanted necessity to rebuild his life. Serendipity rules and Ross found an opportunity in Biloxi, Mississippi to enter the rather dubious occupation of private detective under the mentorship of friendly local police officer, Ben O’Shea, who was rankling in a local law atmosphere that he saw as less than completely on the up-and-up. Author Joe Hamilton clearly acknowledges the motivation that created Gabriel Ross as a composite character – the sarcastic mouth of Nelson DeMille’s perennially snarky wise ass John Corey; the bumbling, self-effacing yet always clever and penetrating TV private eye Columbo; and, last but not least, the suave, handsome, and witty Rockford (also of 1970s television fame). It’s worth pointing out it’s no coincidence that the building blocks of Ross’s character coming from the 1970s. Of course, that’s where RIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME takes place and Hamilton has done a masterful job in bringing the era to life with fleshed-out characters, credible, convincing atmosphere and snappy, colloquial dialogue that ring completely true.
To summarize the plot is simplicity itself. One of Ross’s very first cases is to provide a seriously, disgruntled (but breathtakingly gorgeous and exotic … well, of course) wife with photographic evidence of her husband’s philandering. It is totally obvious that hell will have no fury like THIS woman scorned. But her husband happens to be the local sheriff whose popularity and influence has the entire community in his hip pocket. But a wayward husband does not a mystery novel make so it is not long before Ross’s sleuthing leads him into much, much deeper waters – gun running, human trafficking, police corruption, arson, and serial murder. Definitely the deep end of the private investigator’s pool!
For those readers who would suggest that Ross’s abilities as a rank beginner detective and his over-the-top physical skills as a pugilist (despite his less than intimidating diminutive stature) are a little beyond the pale and lacking credibility, I say … OK, I agree but surely a little literary license is acceptable for a novel that is obviously intended to be a mystery steeped in humor as opposed to an exercise in realism.
A couple of quotes that I found particularly amusing:
“The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make up their minds.”
“… women are like roads, the more curves they have, the more dangerous they are.”
As a Canadian and fellow resident of Hamilton (the city), I’ll give extra special accolades to this series debut and assure Hamilton (the author) that I’m on the hunt for #2 in the series, ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE. Definitely recommended.
Paul Weiss
“They don’t teach you anything about guns, dead bodies or cheating spouses in accounting class.”
If Gabriel Ross were a teenager, one might say he was simply looking to find himself. But perhaps it’s better to say that, after a divorce and a job termination, Ross was forced into the unwanted necessity to rebuild his life. Serendipity rules and Ross found an opportunity in Biloxi, Mississippi to enter the rather dubious occupation of private detective under the mentorship of friendly local police officer, Ben O’Shea, who was rankling in a local law atmosphere that he saw as less than completely on the up-and-up. Author Joe Hamilton clearly acknowledges the motivation that created Gabriel Ross as a composite character – the sarcastic mouth of Nelson DeMille’s perennially snarky wise ass John Corey; the bumbling, self-effacing yet always clever and penetrating TV private eye Columbo; and, last but not least, the suave, handsome, and witty Rockford (also of 1970s television fame). It’s worth pointing out it’s no coincidence that the building blocks of Ross’s character coming from the 1970s. Of course, that’s where RIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME takes place and Hamilton has done a masterful job in bringing the era to life with fleshed-out characters, credible, convincing atmosphere and snappy, colloquial dialogue that ring completely true.
To summarize the plot is simplicity itself. One of Ross’s very first cases is to provide a seriously, disgruntled (but breathtakingly gorgeous and exotic … well, of course) wife with photographic evidence of her husband’s philandering. It is totally obvious that hell will have no fury like THIS woman scorned. But her husband happens to be the local sheriff whose popularity and influence has the entire community in his hip pocket. But a wayward husband does not a mystery novel make so it is not long before Ross’s sleuthing leads him into much, much deeper waters – gun running, human trafficking, police corruption, arson, and serial murder. Definitely the deep end of the private investigator’s pool!
For those readers who would suggest that Ross’s abilities as a rank beginner detective and his over-the-top physical skills as a pugilist (despite his less than intimidating diminutive stature) are a little beyond the pale and lacking credibility, I say … OK, I agree but surely a little literary license is acceptable for a novel that is obviously intended to be a mystery steeped in humor as opposed to an exercise in realism.
A couple of quotes that I found particularly amusing:
“The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make up their minds.”
“… women are like roads, the more curves they have, the more dangerous they are.”
As a Canadian and fellow resident of Hamilton (the city), I’ll give extra special accolades to this series debut and assure Hamilton (the author) that I’m on the hunt for #2 in the series, ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE. Definitely recommended.
Paul Weiss
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