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Las Vegas Mystery #5
Smashed
Private eyes Jim Snow and Alice James are baffled by their new client, Cassie Lane, a buxom slot technician who hires them to investigate the murder of her ex-lover, Billy Ryan.
Billy, a professional horseplayer, has been shot outside his home after a night at the casino with his friend Dean Kale. Later, his stolen car strikes and kills a pregnant teen in a hit and run not far from the scene of his murder.
Who wanted Billy dead? His wife Gina, an attractive blonde, said to be a former model but with a rap sheet indicating a different profession? Her two derelict brothers? Or was the hit-and-run victim really the intended target, and Billy’s shooting and the theft of his car a premeditated step in the crime?
As Cassie’s behavior becomes ever more bizarre, Snow and Alice make a startling discovery that forces them to consider their own client a suspect.
Billy, a professional horseplayer, has been shot outside his home after a night at the casino with his friend Dean Kale. Later, his stolen car strikes and kills a pregnant teen in a hit and run not far from the scene of his murder.
Who wanted Billy dead? His wife Gina, an attractive blonde, said to be a former model but with a rap sheet indicating a different profession? Her two derelict brothers? Or was the hit-and-run victim really the intended target, and Billy’s shooting and the theft of his car a premeditated step in the crime?
As Cassie’s behavior becomes ever more bizarre, Snow and Alice make a startling discovery that forces them to consider their own client a suspect.
260 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 6, 2014
28 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Rex Kusler
23 books50 followersRex Kusler was born in Missouri and raised in a small town in Iowa. He spent his most formative years reading Mad Magazine and playing tiddlywinks. His writing began with a newsletter for a beer club he founded in San Jose in 1982. Soon afterward he tried his hand at short stories. After success selling some of them to a few regional magazines he began writing novels. Seven years, four novels, three agents, and a pile of rejection letters later, he gave up--for a while. In 2003 he wrote ANGELA. In 2009 he completed the first novel in his Las Vegas Mystery Series PUNCTURED, based on his experience selling his trailer for cash in an RV storage lot after dark. After success as a self-published e-book, it was re-released in May 2011 by Amazon Publishing. The second in the series is ASHES TO DUST, followed by DESERT DROP, and many others.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 25, 2024
This series is decent but it isn’t amazing. The characters are okay but also not amazing. So I gave it 3 stars because it was reasonably enjoyable but I wouldn’t feel like I had missed out if I didn’t read it. Not a bad way to pass some time.
April 14, 2015
Note: read under Amazon Kindle Owners Lending Library.
This is thefourth fifth book in the Las Vegas Mysteries series, starring Jim Snow and his current partner both domestic and professional, Alice James. It took me a while to catch the meaning of the name of their company, James & James Investigations (or close).
Successful gambler Barry is gunned down in his own driveway. Everybody who heard anything all agree there were two gunshots and the squeal of tires. But nobody saw anything. Cassie Lane, who recently stopped dating Barry, hires Jim and Alice to investigate, sure that the murderer is Barry's wife, Gina, to whom he returned after dumping Cassie. And what about the poor pregnant teen run down with Barry's missing car around the same time? Soap opera engaged.
This is an interesting mystery, and I'm still not sure justice was served in the end. Without really giving anything away, the killer seems to get off light, all things considered. And there was a great deal of damage done along the way besides the murder of Barry.
I got the feeling this book was more about action and exploring a particular idea than about character. Not that there was no character development, but nothing in particular stood out. If anything, I dislike the character of Alice in this book. Jim, never one to be described glowingly, doesn't come across particularly positive in this one.
If this were the first book I had read in the series, I would not be inclined to read another. But the story saved it overall. Don't let this be your introduction to Jim Snow. Any of the first three books in the series would be a better introduction. Book four was a prequel (hence my thinking this was book four, not considering the actual book four as book four), and I think it should be read after the first three. Just my suggestion.
This is the
Successful gambler Barry is gunned down in his own driveway. Everybody who heard anything all agree there were two gunshots and the squeal of tires. But nobody saw anything. Cassie Lane, who recently stopped dating Barry, hires Jim and Alice to investigate, sure that the murderer is Barry's wife, Gina, to whom he returned after dumping Cassie. And what about the poor pregnant teen run down with Barry's missing car around the same time? Soap opera engaged.
This is an interesting mystery, and I'm still not sure justice was served in the end. Without really giving anything away, the killer seems to get off light, all things considered. And there was a great deal of damage done along the way besides the murder of Barry.
I got the feeling this book was more about action and exploring a particular idea than about character. Not that there was no character development, but nothing in particular stood out. If anything, I dislike the character of Alice in this book. Jim, never one to be described glowingly, doesn't come across particularly positive in this one.
If this were the first book I had read in the series, I would not be inclined to read another. But the story saved it overall. Don't let this be your introduction to Jim Snow. Any of the first three books in the series would be a better introduction. Book four was a prequel (hence my thinking this was book four, not considering the actual book four as book four), and I think it should be read after the first three. Just my suggestion.
August 21, 2014
P.I.s Jim Snow and Alice James take on a strange case. Cassie Lane hires them to find out who killed her ex-lover. He'd been enticed back to his wife after six months and two weeks later was shot dead in his front yard at 4:30 in the morning.
His car had hit and killed a sixteen year old girl a few minutes later, then was abandoned.
The cops thought it a carjacking gone bad. The girl friend thought it the wife and/or her two brothers.
Plenty of suspects. The wife and brothers. The dead teenager had been pregnant. Even their client who kept getting weirder and weirder.
The day after she'd hired them, she was rude, obnoxious, and had fired them. Two hours later she called and acted like they were still employed.
Seriously disturbed.
The two detectives go through their paces until they figured the case out.
Good fast read I finished in a day.
His car had hit and killed a sixteen year old girl a few minutes later, then was abandoned.
The cops thought it a carjacking gone bad. The girl friend thought it the wife and/or her two brothers.
Plenty of suspects. The wife and brothers. The dead teenager had been pregnant. Even their client who kept getting weirder and weirder.
The day after she'd hired them, she was rude, obnoxious, and had fired them. Two hours later she called and acted like they were still employed.
Seriously disturbed.
The two detectives go through their paces until they figured the case out.
Good fast read I finished in a day.
August 27, 2018
Corky and crazy
So this book was corky and crazy. I enjoyed meeting the new clients and the storyline was great. Snow and Alice working together is awesome. Thanks
So this book was corky and crazy. I enjoyed meeting the new clients and the storyline was great. Snow and Alice working together is awesome. Thanks
March 22, 2019
Strange
The book was good in parts. But I got sick of it in the end and skipped sections it was to long
The book was good in parts. But I got sick of it in the end and skipped sections it was to long
September 8, 2015
Rex Kusler's 'Smashed' (Thomas & Mercer 2014) is a fast moving Las Vegas-based story about murder, mystery, and the unpredictability of clients (which anyone in sales can relate to). Alice James and Jim Snow are partners in both their PI agency and life, but polar opposites in everything else. This disparity of opinion often drives the action, decisions and motivation behind the story. When a harried slot technician asks for help revealing the truth behind the murder of her boyfriend, Snow and James find a lot more than they expected, right down to a surprise twist that changes the plot from a typical murder-mystery to one driven by the idiosyncrasies of the characters.
The main characters are fun, likable, with good interpersonal chemistry that makes them easy to travel with through the 270 pages of the book. Though a bit flat at times--even prescriptive--any hint of predictability is covered up by their fresh sense of humor, always slightly below the surface. Much of the story is devoted to their interplay. I found myself enjoying their dialogue, as you might with a best friend and his/her mate.
Overall, this was a good read and I will continue the series.
Note: Read for free as part of my Amazon Vine program
The main characters are fun, likable, with good interpersonal chemistry that makes them easy to travel with through the 270 pages of the book. Though a bit flat at times--even prescriptive--any hint of predictability is covered up by their fresh sense of humor, always slightly below the surface. Much of the story is devoted to their interplay. I found myself enjoying their dialogue, as you might with a best friend and his/her mate.
Overall, this was a good read and I will continue the series.
Note: Read for free as part of my Amazon Vine program
November 17, 2016
I liked this book. According to GR, that's 3 stars. But on a scale of whether it was a good book or not, I give it 4/5.
This book is the epitome of a private investigator procedural. It's a short book at 269 pages, easy to read and follow. It's about 2 PIs, both ex-detectives who now work in Las Vegas; it's part of a series but it's my first one. The plot is about a slot machine tech who hires them to looking into the murder of her ex.
The writing is actually very low key. It's not edge of the seat exciting and it's not a page turner. But it's solid and stolid, you basically just follow the PIs as they ask questions, discover clues, follow up, etc. There is what I call a major discovery in the middle of the book which makes it quite interesting for me. Apart from that, I thought the dialog was major cheesy and a little bit inane, but I didn't let that distract me and to be honest, the inane dialog kinda grew on me.
So overall, a stolid plodding PI procedural but quite interesting. If you want something to read at the airport, to while away some time, this won't be a bad choice. I wouldn't mind reading another one of this series. I got this free as a review copy.
This book is the epitome of a private investigator procedural. It's a short book at 269 pages, easy to read and follow. It's about 2 PIs, both ex-detectives who now work in Las Vegas; it's part of a series but it's my first one. The plot is about a slot machine tech who hires them to looking into the murder of her ex.
The writing is actually very low key. It's not edge of the seat exciting and it's not a page turner. But it's solid and stolid, you basically just follow the PIs as they ask questions, discover clues, follow up, etc. There is what I call a major discovery in the middle of the book which makes it quite interesting for me. Apart from that, I thought the dialog was major cheesy and a little bit inane, but I didn't let that distract me and to be honest, the inane dialog kinda grew on me.
So overall, a stolid plodding PI procedural but quite interesting. If you want something to read at the airport, to while away some time, this won't be a bad choice. I wouldn't mind reading another one of this series. I got this free as a review copy.
October 11, 2014
I missed the previous book but on a personal level James and James seem to have become romantically linked and are planning moving in together. I think Jim will be getting the better deal as Alice has it all together and he still seems a bit ramshackle.
They are on the trail, this time of a hit and run driver who has killed a young teenage girl. Amongst the suspects is a woman with DID- Dissociative Identity Disorder. One of her Alters is the client who has hired James and James to find out who killed her boyfriend (another associated murder to the hit and run).
Solid detective story with humour and based to L.V.- This time the city is not one of the characters, it could have been set almost anywhere.
They are on the trail, this time of a hit and run driver who has killed a young teenage girl. Amongst the suspects is a woman with DID- Dissociative Identity Disorder. One of her Alters is the client who has hired James and James to find out who killed her boyfriend (another associated murder to the hit and run).
Solid detective story with humour and based to L.V.- This time the city is not one of the characters, it could have been set almost anywhere.
October 6, 2016
Just had to say...
Even though I haven't said anything on the last 4 books I just had to comment on this one. I am really enjoying this series I have given each book four or five stars. I love Snow and Alice and their interaction. I love reading a male point of view by a male author. Is this something uniquely male there that female authors never seem to achieve. I am happy there are four more books to go. I am enjoying this series and I thank the author
for sharing a genius for great storytelling. I recommend this series to anyone who likes a little mystery A Little Romance and a lot of human nature.
Even though I haven't said anything on the last 4 books I just had to comment on this one. I am really enjoying this series I have given each book four or five stars. I love Snow and Alice and their interaction. I love reading a male point of view by a male author. Is this something uniquely male there that female authors never seem to achieve. I am happy there are four more books to go. I am enjoying this series and I thank the author
for sharing a genius for great storytelling. I recommend this series to anyone who likes a little mystery A Little Romance and a lot of human nature.
June 13, 2016
A really bland "mystery." There's never any drama or suspense built up. The two private detectives just go around asking people questions without ever getting shot at or sapped on the head or even threatened. The solution of the mystery wasn't very interesting and throwing in multiple personalities didn't help because it's been done.
May 25, 2014
I wanted fluff. I got fluff!
June 3, 2014
Mellow easy read
I was able to read the whole story there were no surprises & by the end it didn't really matter who the killer was. I'd forgotten what it was about in a sense
I was able to read the whole story there were no surprises & by the end it didn't really matter who the killer was. I'd forgotten what it was about in a sense
December 23, 2014
#5, the best of them, so far
Rex Kusler has an interesting way of thinking. His twists, so far, are inventive and quite clever once I stopped and thought about it. On to #6
Rex Kusler has an interesting way of thinking. His twists, so far, are inventive and quite clever once I stopped and thought about it. On to #6
August 3, 2015
It was a good, quick read on vacation.
December 13, 2016
The gentle banter between the main characters, continues to amuse, but the plot of this one is quite weak
April 6, 2017
Not very good. Some of the dialogue was painful. Plot could have been a Lifetime movie
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews