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Where the Bones Lie
“A road trip into California’s gleaming, seething underbelly. Movie stars, mobsters, wildfires – buckle up and hold on for a heady ride.”
– Meg Gardiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Where the Bones Lie isn’t just Nick Kolakowski’s strongest novel yet, it’s a helluva page-turner, loaded with sinister humor, a twisty plot, and the kind of complicated characters readers deserve. Don’t miss this one.”
– Alex Segura, author of Secret Identity and Alter Ego
“Nick Kolakowski is a noir voice for the 21st century.”
– Steven Powell, Edgar-winning author of Love Me Fierce in The Life of James Ellroy
“Starts off in fifth gear and never slows down. This is the best detective novel I’ve read in years.”
– Steve Weddle, author of The County Line
For Dash Fuller, Hollywood’s underbelly is home. He’s spent years making the film industry’s worst secrets disappear, and it’s left him a cynical burnout with a taste for bourbon and self-loathing.
But when a young woman comes to him with a peculiar quest, Dash sees a chance at redemption. Madeline Ironwood is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler and murderer who disappeared 20 years ago. Ken’s skeleton has just been discovered in a barrel at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and Madeline wants to know who killed him.
Dash agrees to help, and as this desperate daughter and jaded cynic claw their way through a world of sun-bleached secrets, crooked cops, and Hollywood thugs, they soon uncover a conspiracy involving some of LA’s most powerful people.
Get ready for a fast-paced, darkly funny thriller with a twist you won’t see coming.
– Meg Gardiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Where the Bones Lie isn’t just Nick Kolakowski’s strongest novel yet, it’s a helluva page-turner, loaded with sinister humor, a twisty plot, and the kind of complicated characters readers deserve. Don’t miss this one.”
– Alex Segura, author of Secret Identity and Alter Ego
“Nick Kolakowski is a noir voice for the 21st century.”
– Steven Powell, Edgar-winning author of Love Me Fierce in The Life of James Ellroy
“Starts off in fifth gear and never slows down. This is the best detective novel I’ve read in years.”
– Steve Weddle, author of The County Line
For Dash Fuller, Hollywood’s underbelly is home. He’s spent years making the film industry’s worst secrets disappear, and it’s left him a cynical burnout with a taste for bourbon and self-loathing.
But when a young woman comes to him with a peculiar quest, Dash sees a chance at redemption. Madeline Ironwood is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler and murderer who disappeared 20 years ago. Ken’s skeleton has just been discovered in a barrel at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and Madeline wants to know who killed him.
Dash agrees to help, and as this desperate daughter and jaded cynic claw their way through a world of sun-bleached secrets, crooked cops, and Hollywood thugs, they soon uncover a conspiracy involving some of LA’s most powerful people.
Get ready for a fast-paced, darkly funny thriller with a twist you won’t see coming.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 11, 2025
15 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
About the author
Nick Kolakowski
66 books117 followersNick Kolakowski is the author of several horror and crime novels, including “Absolute Unit” (Crystal Lake Publishing) and “Where the Bones Lie” (Datura Books). His short stories and nonfiction essays have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including House of Gamut, Mystery Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Rock & A Hard Place, and (upcoming) Best American Mystery & Suspense 2024. He lives and writes in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
March 9, 2025
In a Nutshell: A detective thriller based in Hollywood-land California. Set in contemporary time but feels like a classic crime fiction. Strong characters, some good twists, and witty humour. A bit too convenient and farfetched at times, but the final section elevates the overall experience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
While I do read a variety of books, there are some genres I haven’t touched in ages. One such category is private sleuth stories. So when this novel promised to reveal the darker underbelly of Hollywood, I was intrigued. Picking this was a reading gamble as many of the potential elements didn’t seem to be my cup of tea, but I do like to challenge myself. And thankfully, the gamble worked to a great extent.
Bookish Yays:
🎯 Madeline – a young woman with spunk and sass. Never lets the circumstances defeat her and approaches everything and everyone with unfiltered honesty. Loved her!
🎯 Dash – Not your typical cocky PI who considers himself the best at his job. Dash has his mental demons and also a sensitive side. He makes for an unusual sleuth with his imperfections.
🎯 Dash and Madeline have a mutually-respectful partnership, though he is obviously senior to her in age and experience. I like how he doesn’t look down on her or patronize her, nor does she allow him to dictate every move but holds her own in a conversation.
🎯 Plenty of banter between Dash and Madeline, lending a fun quotient to many scenes even when the overall proceedings are serious.
🎯 No forced romance between the lead pair, and not even shoved-in comments about physical hotness and attraction and the like – much appreciated.
🎯 The writing approach – Sometimes, it feels like the book is paying homage to classic crime noir, and sometimes, it seems more like a PI parody. Either way, it’s fun if you just go with the flow.
🎯 The details about the “fixing”. Makes me wonder how many such fixers might be actually there in Hollywood, hiding murky truths about our favourite stars! 👀
🎯 The setting – Nicely used in the plot. Though LA and Hollywood are part of the background, the story focusses not on the glam side but on the dirty underbelly of moviedom and gangland.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🔎 Though fast-paced in general, the actual storyline takes a while to get going. The initial 20% is about another unrelated case being handled by Dash. Even once Madeline comes into the picture, the writing still takes a while to deliver adrenaline rushes.
🔎 While there is some solid high-octane action in the book, it appears only sporadically. Some of the action sequences get resolved too soon, and a major chunk is present only in the last quarter of the book.
🔎 The final section – I did see a part of the twist coming but the extent of the twist was a surprise to me. The ending is overall quite good, with many surprises and plenty of action, and only a decent-sized infodump confession. However, one of the reveals was somewhat unconvincing and hence disappointing.
⚠ Not exactly a bookish issue, but I was surprised to see references to climate change and forest fires popping up regularly throughout the plot. In fact, the fires are mentioned quite casually, as if they are now a normal part of LA life. (Hope this is not the case! 😢) I realise that this novel was written well before the destructive January 2025 wildfires in LA, but this fire-related content might be a bit triggering to a few readers.
Bookish Nays:
💥 I wish the ages of the main characters were clarified. Madeline seems to be in her early twenties, but Dash’s age is not revealed at all. Knowing a character’s age helps us in understanding and anticipating their behaviour better.
💥 Too coincidental at times! Dash and Madeline seem to have more than their fair share of luck, because even when they are reckless and impulsive, they end up in minimal danger and they get out of it equally fast.. Basically, this has many of the convenient plotting methods of contemporary thrillers, which does not seem to bother most thriller fans but keeps me away from the genre. Golden rule: Don’t overthink while reading. (This reminder is more for myself; I keep forgetting it!)
💥 While the ending has surprises, the rest of the plot has no red herrings or multiple suspects to pick from. The story seems surprisingly straightforward in that respect. I would have liked to challenge my brain cells more throughout the story.
All in all, though this wasn’t my kind of book and it did go a little too straightforward in the initial half for my liking, the main characters and the climax redeemed the book to a great extent.
The story in this novel is complete, but it looks like Dash might abandon his stand-up comedy for a new career. I hope he does, because comedy is clearly not his forte and he has the potential to be the lead PI of a series.
Recommended to those who enjoy darkly comic sleuth stories with an imperfect PI at the helm.
3.5 stars.
My thanks to author Nick Kolakowski and Datura Books for providing the DRC of “Where the Bones Lie” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Threads || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
Modern-day Los Angeles. Dash Fuller spent many years working for a Hollywood “fixer”. Anytime celebrities get into a mess, Dash and his boss Manny were the ones they call to clean the slate. But after one messy incident, Dash decided to call it quits. Now, he spends his time either attempting stand-up comedy or downing a glass of bourbon.
Madeline is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler who vanished twenty years ago when she was just a child. A drying lakebed has revealed a barrel containing Ken’s skeleton, and Madeline wants to know who killed him. When Madeline approaches Dash to do this detective work for her, he sees it as a chance for redemption. But as the two of them venture into some elite LA territory, the last thing they expect is for the cold case to be not so cold.
The story comes to us in Dash’s first-person perspective.
While I do read a variety of books, there are some genres I haven’t touched in ages. One such category is private sleuth stories. So when this novel promised to reveal the darker underbelly of Hollywood, I was intrigued. Picking this was a reading gamble as many of the potential elements didn’t seem to be my cup of tea, but I do like to challenge myself. And thankfully, the gamble worked to a great extent.
Bookish Yays:
🎯 Madeline – a young woman with spunk and sass. Never lets the circumstances defeat her and approaches everything and everyone with unfiltered honesty. Loved her!
🎯 Dash – Not your typical cocky PI who considers himself the best at his job. Dash has his mental demons and also a sensitive side. He makes for an unusual sleuth with his imperfections.
🎯 Dash and Madeline have a mutually-respectful partnership, though he is obviously senior to her in age and experience. I like how he doesn’t look down on her or patronize her, nor does she allow him to dictate every move but holds her own in a conversation.
🎯 Plenty of banter between Dash and Madeline, lending a fun quotient to many scenes even when the overall proceedings are serious.
🎯 No forced romance between the lead pair, and not even shoved-in comments about physical hotness and attraction and the like – much appreciated.
🎯 The writing approach – Sometimes, it feels like the book is paying homage to classic crime noir, and sometimes, it seems more like a PI parody. Either way, it’s fun if you just go with the flow.
🎯 The details about the “fixing”. Makes me wonder how many such fixers might be actually there in Hollywood, hiding murky truths about our favourite stars! 👀
🎯 The setting – Nicely used in the plot. Though LA and Hollywood are part of the background, the story focusses not on the glam side but on the dirty underbelly of moviedom and gangland.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🔎 Though fast-paced in general, the actual storyline takes a while to get going. The initial 20% is about another unrelated case being handled by Dash. Even once Madeline comes into the picture, the writing still takes a while to deliver adrenaline rushes.
🔎 While there is some solid high-octane action in the book, it appears only sporadically. Some of the action sequences get resolved too soon, and a major chunk is present only in the last quarter of the book.
🔎 The final section – I did see a part of the twist coming but the extent of the twist was a surprise to me. The ending is overall quite good, with many surprises and plenty of action, and only a decent-sized infodump confession. However, one of the reveals was somewhat unconvincing and hence disappointing.
⚠ Not exactly a bookish issue, but I was surprised to see references to climate change and forest fires popping up regularly throughout the plot. In fact, the fires are mentioned quite casually, as if they are now a normal part of LA life. (Hope this is not the case! 😢) I realise that this novel was written well before the destructive January 2025 wildfires in LA, but this fire-related content might be a bit triggering to a few readers.
Bookish Nays:
💥 I wish the ages of the main characters were clarified. Madeline seems to be in her early twenties, but Dash’s age is not revealed at all. Knowing a character’s age helps us in understanding and anticipating their behaviour better.
💥 Too coincidental at times! Dash and Madeline seem to have more than their fair share of luck, because even when they are reckless and impulsive, they end up in minimal danger and they get out of it equally fast.. Basically, this has many of the convenient plotting methods of contemporary thrillers, which does not seem to bother most thriller fans but keeps me away from the genre. Golden rule: Don’t overthink while reading. (This reminder is more for myself; I keep forgetting it!)
💥 While the ending has surprises, the rest of the plot has no red herrings or multiple suspects to pick from. The story seems surprisingly straightforward in that respect. I would have liked to challenge my brain cells more throughout the story.
All in all, though this wasn’t my kind of book and it did go a little too straightforward in the initial half for my liking, the main characters and the climax redeemed the book to a great extent.
The story in this novel is complete, but it looks like Dash might abandon his stand-up comedy for a new career. I hope he does, because comedy is clearly not his forte and he has the potential to be the lead PI of a series.
Recommended to those who enjoy darkly comic sleuth stories with an imperfect PI at the helm.
3.5 stars.
My thanks to author Nick Kolakowski and Datura Books for providing the DRC of “Where the Bones Lie” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Threads || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
March 24, 2025
Bones is a fun and fast paced book that was easy to read in just a few sittings!
I love short-ish books. Where the Bones Lie packs a lot of character, action, and mystery solving into 280 pages. I loved meeting our Hollywood fixer type of main character, who really can’t retire because he’s a terrible comedian. He gets sucked back into the seedy world when a young woman approaches him regarding her father’s murder.
So off they go, and maybe my favorite feature of the book (other than her old bad ass Mustang) is that the two mains had only a trusting partnership instead of a forced romance! I haaaate how every book pushes characters into romance these days so seeing them come to understand each other in a respectful way while keeping boundaries and having crushes on other people is SO REFRESHING.
Anyway, you get everything from explosions to potentially crooked cops to a couple of super sketchy rich guys. There’s a lot more too. I liked the banter and Kolakowski writes great dialogue without being heavy on inner monologue, which is often huge with these cynical detective types. My only complaint is that *some*, not all, but *some* of the main case and danger seems a little straight forward and too easily resolved.
One other high point is that he’s very good at writing setting and action scenes! I like to play things out in my head as I read them and had no trouble doing so!
I’d definitely recommend this one if you like a modern twist on crime noir!
I love short-ish books. Where the Bones Lie packs a lot of character, action, and mystery solving into 280 pages. I loved meeting our Hollywood fixer type of main character, who really can’t retire because he’s a terrible comedian. He gets sucked back into the seedy world when a young woman approaches him regarding her father’s murder.
So off they go, and maybe my favorite feature of the book (other than her old bad ass Mustang) is that the two mains had only a trusting partnership instead of a forced romance! I haaaate how every book pushes characters into romance these days so seeing them come to understand each other in a respectful way while keeping boundaries and having crushes on other people is SO REFRESHING.
Anyway, you get everything from explosions to potentially crooked cops to a couple of super sketchy rich guys. There’s a lot more too. I liked the banter and Kolakowski writes great dialogue without being heavy on inner monologue, which is often huge with these cynical detective types. My only complaint is that *some*, not all, but *some* of the main case and danger seems a little straight forward and too easily resolved.
One other high point is that he’s very good at writing setting and action scenes! I like to play things out in my head as I read them and had no trouble doing so!
I’d definitely recommend this one if you like a modern twist on crime noir!
December 2, 2024
*Huge thanks to Nick for sending me a digital ARC of this!*
If you’ve followed my reviews for the last almost-decade, you’ll know I’m not really a true crime fiction reader. My reading desires typically include the necessity of supernatural/paranormal/horror elements and the straight up crime stuff sometimes causes me to drift away and not stay focused.
Saying that, there’s been some books that’ve been excellent in the crime world that’ve excited me, the most recent being the Bishop Rider series of books that Beau Johnson has been releasing.
When Nick reached out to see if I’d take a stab at this one, I agreed for one big reason. Nick can write his ass off. In every thing I’ve read of his, he’s night and day one of the best writer’s you’ll ever read. The quality of storytelling, the quality of character development and the careful crafting of the narrative is simply unparalleled.
What I liked: The novel follows Dash, former Hollywood clean-up man, now failing stand-up comic. He’s trying to put his former life in the rearview mirror and get on the straight and clean bus, but that’s simply impossible. The opening scene shows him faltering at a stand up set, when his old boss, Manny, arrives and offers him a job. It opens up old trauma, a job gone wrong, that pushed Dash away from the life, but cash is cash and once it’s done, he convinces himself that he’s done for good.
Here’s where things take a turn. He gets a phone call, from the daughter of Ken Ironwood. His body was found after having been missing for decades and she wants Dash’s help to figure out who took him out.
Kolakowski weaves a very strong cat-and-mouse game from that point on. Chalk full of humor, action and clues, the pace was frantic and it wasn’t long before I was fully immersed. Even when things were moving along and I thought for sure that I knew what was going on, a new wrinkle would arrive and I’d have to rethink everything I thought I knew.
The ending is a massive wrap up of a bajillion loose ends that worked to really put a nail in a number of coffin’s. It was a cinematic ending to a novel that had bulldozed its way to that crazy conclusion.
What I didn’t like: There were hints of paranormal stuff at the beginning, which faded away not long after, and I was a bit saddened, because it really made you question whether Dash was crazy or not. It worked out well, when all was revealed, but for this reader, I was saddened it wasn’t a bigger angle later on.
Why you should buy this: If you’re like me and not a typical crime reader, but are looking to dip your toes into something and see how you dig it, this would be the perfect book to take for a spin. A remote setting, two unlikely people working together, and a ton of crazy twists and turns, Kolakowski’s delivered a superb novel that’ll have people zipping through it.
If you’ve followed my reviews for the last almost-decade, you’ll know I’m not really a true crime fiction reader. My reading desires typically include the necessity of supernatural/paranormal/horror elements and the straight up crime stuff sometimes causes me to drift away and not stay focused.
Saying that, there’s been some books that’ve been excellent in the crime world that’ve excited me, the most recent being the Bishop Rider series of books that Beau Johnson has been releasing.
When Nick reached out to see if I’d take a stab at this one, I agreed for one big reason. Nick can write his ass off. In every thing I’ve read of his, he’s night and day one of the best writer’s you’ll ever read. The quality of storytelling, the quality of character development and the careful crafting of the narrative is simply unparalleled.
What I liked: The novel follows Dash, former Hollywood clean-up man, now failing stand-up comic. He’s trying to put his former life in the rearview mirror and get on the straight and clean bus, but that’s simply impossible. The opening scene shows him faltering at a stand up set, when his old boss, Manny, arrives and offers him a job. It opens up old trauma, a job gone wrong, that pushed Dash away from the life, but cash is cash and once it’s done, he convinces himself that he’s done for good.
Here’s where things take a turn. He gets a phone call, from the daughter of Ken Ironwood. His body was found after having been missing for decades and she wants Dash’s help to figure out who took him out.
Kolakowski weaves a very strong cat-and-mouse game from that point on. Chalk full of humor, action and clues, the pace was frantic and it wasn’t long before I was fully immersed. Even when things were moving along and I thought for sure that I knew what was going on, a new wrinkle would arrive and I’d have to rethink everything I thought I knew.
The ending is a massive wrap up of a bajillion loose ends that worked to really put a nail in a number of coffin’s. It was a cinematic ending to a novel that had bulldozed its way to that crazy conclusion.
What I didn’t like: There were hints of paranormal stuff at the beginning, which faded away not long after, and I was a bit saddened, because it really made you question whether Dash was crazy or not. It worked out well, when all was revealed, but for this reader, I was saddened it wasn’t a bigger angle later on.
Why you should buy this: If you’re like me and not a typical crime reader, but are looking to dip your toes into something and see how you dig it, this would be the perfect book to take for a spin. A remote setting, two unlikely people working together, and a ton of crazy twists and turns, Kolakowski’s delivered a superb novel that’ll have people zipping through it.
February 12, 2025
NOTE: This review originally appeared on my blog at https://www.michaelpatrickhicks.com/b...
Nick Kolakowski really gets around, genre-wise. Although he has plenty of crime capers under his belt, with books like Payback is Forever and his Love & Bullets series, it’s his few - and excellent - horror novellas that I first became acquainted with his work, specifically Absolute Unit and, later, Beach Bodies. And let’s not forget his awesome Friday the 13th X Groundhog Day riff, appropriately titled “Goundhog Slay,” in the Monsters (Dark Tide Book 5) novella collection. Indeed, Kolakowski has found a pretty sweet spot as a crossover author in his own right, effortlessly hopping back and forth between crime and horror and mixing up the two on occasion (The Boise Long-Pig Hunting Club and its sequel, regrettably, remain unread in Mount TBR, along with Maxine Unleashes Doomsday, and I can only imagine what those books must entail based on their titles!).
With Where the Bones Lie, Kolakowski turns his attention to the old reliable of crime fiction, the private detective, albeit in a round-about way, which fits Nick’s style to a T. Dash Fuller is a former Hollywood fixer. Got a celebrity you need dried out before dying of an OD just before making the publicity rounds for a new flick or big-budget streaming series? Or maybe the celeb has already OD’d and the cause of death needs to be adjusted to something more palatable by way of favors made to the police and medical examiner? Or maybe it’s the body of a rando the celeb was hooking up with that has sadly expired and now needs to be hidden? Or, hell, maybe you just need some paparazzi kneecapped. Dash is your guy. Or was, anyway. Dash is reformed and failing at being a stand-up comedian because, funny enough, he’s not all that funny. This means, of course, he’s broke and making fast food door deliveries and Ubering folks around isn’t making ends meet. Enter his old boss, Manny, with one last job. One thing leads to another, yada yada yada, and pretty soon Dash find himself involved with Madeline Ironwood, who has hired him to find out who murdered her drug-running father, Ken. Ken’s skeleton, you see, has recently been discovered in a barrel that had been sunk in a lake, but climate changing being what it is, said lake is no more, wildfires are ravaging the landscape, and all kinds of secrets are finding their way back into the sun.
Kolakowski’s opening pages set the stage for an interesting dilemma — what happens when you’re really good at doing bad things? For Dash, it’s a personal crisis that results in stomach cramps best relieved by punishing amounts of alcohol and snark because he is, after all, a not-quite private eye of the hard-boiled tradition, and because healthy coping mechanisms make for poor drama. Both Dash and Madeline make light of the fact that finding out what happened to Ken is cheaper than therapy, but there’s an unmissable truth in such jokes. Both have long-standing, albeit wildly different, issues in need of resolution. For Dash these are brought to the forefront as Manny reenters his life and dredges up a past that Dash finds impossible to escape, and which has literally crippled him with guilt. During the course of his investigation into Ken’s disappearance he suffers a panic attack. His dreams are waking nightmares that make for fitful sleep. He sees a black-clad figure in a skull mask stalking him wherever he goes, a figure that may or may not actually be there.
Dash makes for an interesting character study. He’s impulsive and self-assured in his skills, but so riddled with doubt and guilt that he can’t keep doing all the things he’s so good at. His talents have made his existence a living hell. But it’s not until Madeline enters the picture that he finds a pathway into do-goodery. Former footnote of an actress Madeline makes for an equally intriguing foil, and it’s clear Kolakowski had a lot of fun writing these two. She’s a wildcat, and there’s a natural charm to the repartee between her and Dash. It’s refreshing, too, to see their relationship founded on mutual respect and professionalism, rather than the typical ‘will they or won’t they’ tropes often found in similar set-ups.
Where the Bones Lie subverts just enough of the usual expectations that it feels fresh and enjoyable, and Kolakowski puts a unique spin on the private dick character with his focus on mental health and finding balance in a truly off-kilter world. With shades of Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole novels by way of Jordan Harper’s outstanding Everybody Knows, Kolakowski delivers an intriguing PI page-turner that reminds us just how dark sunny California can get.
Nick Kolakowski really gets around, genre-wise. Although he has plenty of crime capers under his belt, with books like Payback is Forever and his Love & Bullets series, it’s his few - and excellent - horror novellas that I first became acquainted with his work, specifically Absolute Unit and, later, Beach Bodies. And let’s not forget his awesome Friday the 13th X Groundhog Day riff, appropriately titled “Goundhog Slay,” in the Monsters (Dark Tide Book 5) novella collection. Indeed, Kolakowski has found a pretty sweet spot as a crossover author in his own right, effortlessly hopping back and forth between crime and horror and mixing up the two on occasion (The Boise Long-Pig Hunting Club and its sequel, regrettably, remain unread in Mount TBR, along with Maxine Unleashes Doomsday, and I can only imagine what those books must entail based on their titles!).
With Where the Bones Lie, Kolakowski turns his attention to the old reliable of crime fiction, the private detective, albeit in a round-about way, which fits Nick’s style to a T. Dash Fuller is a former Hollywood fixer. Got a celebrity you need dried out before dying of an OD just before making the publicity rounds for a new flick or big-budget streaming series? Or maybe the celeb has already OD’d and the cause of death needs to be adjusted to something more palatable by way of favors made to the police and medical examiner? Or maybe it’s the body of a rando the celeb was hooking up with that has sadly expired and now needs to be hidden? Or, hell, maybe you just need some paparazzi kneecapped. Dash is your guy. Or was, anyway. Dash is reformed and failing at being a stand-up comedian because, funny enough, he’s not all that funny. This means, of course, he’s broke and making fast food door deliveries and Ubering folks around isn’t making ends meet. Enter his old boss, Manny, with one last job. One thing leads to another, yada yada yada, and pretty soon Dash find himself involved with Madeline Ironwood, who has hired him to find out who murdered her drug-running father, Ken. Ken’s skeleton, you see, has recently been discovered in a barrel that had been sunk in a lake, but climate changing being what it is, said lake is no more, wildfires are ravaging the landscape, and all kinds of secrets are finding their way back into the sun.
Kolakowski’s opening pages set the stage for an interesting dilemma — what happens when you’re really good at doing bad things? For Dash, it’s a personal crisis that results in stomach cramps best relieved by punishing amounts of alcohol and snark because he is, after all, a not-quite private eye of the hard-boiled tradition, and because healthy coping mechanisms make for poor drama. Both Dash and Madeline make light of the fact that finding out what happened to Ken is cheaper than therapy, but there’s an unmissable truth in such jokes. Both have long-standing, albeit wildly different, issues in need of resolution. For Dash these are brought to the forefront as Manny reenters his life and dredges up a past that Dash finds impossible to escape, and which has literally crippled him with guilt. During the course of his investigation into Ken’s disappearance he suffers a panic attack. His dreams are waking nightmares that make for fitful sleep. He sees a black-clad figure in a skull mask stalking him wherever he goes, a figure that may or may not actually be there.
Dash makes for an interesting character study. He’s impulsive and self-assured in his skills, but so riddled with doubt and guilt that he can’t keep doing all the things he’s so good at. His talents have made his existence a living hell. But it’s not until Madeline enters the picture that he finds a pathway into do-goodery. Former footnote of an actress Madeline makes for an equally intriguing foil, and it’s clear Kolakowski had a lot of fun writing these two. She’s a wildcat, and there’s a natural charm to the repartee between her and Dash. It’s refreshing, too, to see their relationship founded on mutual respect and professionalism, rather than the typical ‘will they or won’t they’ tropes often found in similar set-ups.
Where the Bones Lie subverts just enough of the usual expectations that it feels fresh and enjoyable, and Kolakowski puts a unique spin on the private dick character with his focus on mental health and finding balance in a truly off-kilter world. With shades of Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole novels by way of Jordan Harper’s outstanding Everybody Knows, Kolakowski delivers an intriguing PI page-turner that reminds us just how dark sunny California can get.
March 18, 2025
This review was originally posted on Queen's Book Asylum.
I received an eARC from Datura Books in exchange for an honest review.
I admit I went into Where the Bones Lie somewhat blindly, because even though I must have read the blurb at one point (and I’m 100% sure I did as I helped with the cover reveal ages ago, and also because it got my interest enough to make me want to read the book), I had no idea what was waiting for me. And as this is the first book I read from Nick Kolakowski, I had no previous experiences or expectations, which was nice. No bars to jump – well, at least only just the very high one of my personal enjoyment. Which, thankfully was cleared by Where the Bones Lie.
I always end up enjoying books (and documentaries) that make us look behind the scenes of celebrity life, and I’m not sure what that says about me. I guess it’s the validation that life can’t be as picture-perfect and glittering as Hollywood would like us to believe. And the higher someone climbs on the celebrity ladder the bigger the fall is. I like to believe I’m not interested in these stories to gloat or feel better about myself, but I’m genuinely curious about the hows and whys as well as the human pshyché. I guess that’s also why I find mysteries fascinating.
In the case of Where the Bones Lie, we get to look into the life of a Hollywood fixer, well, an ex-fixer, whose job was to keep various up-and-coming celebs out of trouble, no matter the consequences as long as the public (and the studios) were happy and oblivious. And Dash Fuller was one of the best at what he was doing until a case made him quit. Not that it made things any better, as he became an alcoholic (or nearly so) and attempted to become a comedian, even though he is not funny. And the past always comes knocking.
Madeline hires him to help her find out what really happened to his father, whose remains were recently found at the bottom of a drying lake. Ken Ironwood himself was a sort of Hollywood legend as a smuggler and murderer. Since Dash wants to be as far away from LA as possible for the time being, he agrees and they head out to the Californian countryside. I liked the dynamics between these two, their dialogue, and the way they worked together and I think we can safely say built a friendship. I’m definitely giving bonus points for not forcing the characters into a romantic relationship. But Where the Bones Lie feels more like a plot-driven book, because even though we see everything from Dash’s POV, I never felt connected to him somehow. Oh, I could sympathize with him and liked him as a character with his faults and all, but I never bonded with him on an emotional level. But that happens and it did not lower my enjoyment of the book.
That said, Where the Bones Lie kept me engaged enough to read it much faster than I thought – then again, this is a book on the short side, so it’s not very surprising. And I think it could have done with a bit more as it felt too bare bones (pun absolutely intended). For the majority of the plot, the investigation felt too easy. Things kept falling into their laps, everything seemed to point in one direction and a seemingly obvious conclusion. And I didn’t really mind, because as I said, I enjoyed the ride, Kolakowski definitely has a style of writing that makes reading fun, but I felt that not everyone might feel compelled to stick with it until the end. This in turn leads me to say that the ending feels a bit rushed, if more satisfying than I would have expected. Interestingly, recent events in California add an unintended extra layer of tension to the book, which actually works very well.
All in all, I had a good time with time with book and I’m hoping that at one point there is going to be a sequel, because I very much would like to find out what Dash Fuller gets up to next. Where the Bones Lie is an action packed romp of a book, that shows us the ugly side of Hollywood in Kolakowski’s quirky and highly entertaining style. I sure will keep an eye out for any other books of his.
I received an eARC from Datura Books in exchange for an honest review.
“If you were a first-time visitor to Earth and saw the ocean, you’d think: perfection. And then you’d turn to look at the coast with its endless concrete and burning lights and machines belching smog, and think: why did they go so wrong?”
I admit I went into Where the Bones Lie somewhat blindly, because even though I must have read the blurb at one point (and I’m 100% sure I did as I helped with the cover reveal ages ago, and also because it got my interest enough to make me want to read the book), I had no idea what was waiting for me. And as this is the first book I read from Nick Kolakowski, I had no previous experiences or expectations, which was nice. No bars to jump – well, at least only just the very high one of my personal enjoyment. Which, thankfully was cleared by Where the Bones Lie.
I always end up enjoying books (and documentaries) that make us look behind the scenes of celebrity life, and I’m not sure what that says about me. I guess it’s the validation that life can’t be as picture-perfect and glittering as Hollywood would like us to believe. And the higher someone climbs on the celebrity ladder the bigger the fall is. I like to believe I’m not interested in these stories to gloat or feel better about myself, but I’m genuinely curious about the hows and whys as well as the human pshyché. I guess that’s also why I find mysteries fascinating.
In the case of Where the Bones Lie, we get to look into the life of a Hollywood fixer, well, an ex-fixer, whose job was to keep various up-and-coming celebs out of trouble, no matter the consequences as long as the public (and the studios) were happy and oblivious. And Dash Fuller was one of the best at what he was doing until a case made him quit. Not that it made things any better, as he became an alcoholic (or nearly so) and attempted to become a comedian, even though he is not funny. And the past always comes knocking.
Madeline hires him to help her find out what really happened to his father, whose remains were recently found at the bottom of a drying lake. Ken Ironwood himself was a sort of Hollywood legend as a smuggler and murderer. Since Dash wants to be as far away from LA as possible for the time being, he agrees and they head out to the Californian countryside. I liked the dynamics between these two, their dialogue, and the way they worked together and I think we can safely say built a friendship. I’m definitely giving bonus points for not forcing the characters into a romantic relationship. But Where the Bones Lie feels more like a plot-driven book, because even though we see everything from Dash’s POV, I never felt connected to him somehow. Oh, I could sympathize with him and liked him as a character with his faults and all, but I never bonded with him on an emotional level. But that happens and it did not lower my enjoyment of the book.
That said, Where the Bones Lie kept me engaged enough to read it much faster than I thought – then again, this is a book on the short side, so it’s not very surprising. And I think it could have done with a bit more as it felt too bare bones (pun absolutely intended). For the majority of the plot, the investigation felt too easy. Things kept falling into their laps, everything seemed to point in one direction and a seemingly obvious conclusion. And I didn’t really mind, because as I said, I enjoyed the ride, Kolakowski definitely has a style of writing that makes reading fun, but I felt that not everyone might feel compelled to stick with it until the end. This in turn leads me to say that the ending feels a bit rushed, if more satisfying than I would have expected. Interestingly, recent events in California add an unintended extra layer of tension to the book, which actually works very well.
All in all, I had a good time with time with book and I’m hoping that at one point there is going to be a sequel, because I very much would like to find out what Dash Fuller gets up to next. Where the Bones Lie is an action packed romp of a book, that shows us the ugly side of Hollywood in Kolakowski’s quirky and highly entertaining style. I sure will keep an eye out for any other books of his.
October 26, 2024
Where the Bones Lie is a great P.I. story and a lot of fun. Dash Fuller is a Hollywood “fixer” turned comedian turned private investigator with an interesting past and some strong character traits that drive a compelling mystery story. I hope this is the first in a series because I’d love to read more Dash adventures (even better if he teamed up with Madeline again, another solid character who riffs off Dash really well).
March 22, 2025
This is a detective thriller that keeps on giving with every page. All the boxes for a page turner are ticked: the beautiful and promiscuous setting of Hollywood, a tormented and clever main character and a twisty plot, all mixed with dark humour and action. What’s not to love?
When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be the usual crime story with a murder to solve and the beat down detective as the main character. I mean, I love those too, but you already know what to expect. Well, this book surprised me for several reasons, one because our main character Dash is not a detective, but someone who used to make problems disappear, especially when involving film stars, leaving him with so many regrets and a blackened soul that he tries to wash clean with alcohol, without any success I might add.
After trying a career as a stand up comedian, a woman asks him for help to find out what happened to his father, after recovering his bones in a dried lake. Madeline’s dad was not without faults I might say, making the story even more intriguing.
What unfolds is a plot worthy of being televised for how good it is! When Madeline and Dash start digging for answers, they find out more than they could ever imagine and the twists are so good! There’s also a parallel plot which is equally twisty and gripping.
Fast paced and with dialogues that will make you laugh, this is a true page turner! Dash and Madeline make quite the couple, their banter enhancing the story massively!
I loved the ending too, not just because of how the various mysteries were solved, but for the insight into Dash’s emotional state. I truly hope to read more about Dash (even if at times he annoyed me), because he felt real.
This was my first book by this author, but I’m looking forward to many more! And you should add this to your tbr now!
Thanks to the author and Datura Books for a copy and this is my honest opinion.
When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be the usual crime story with a murder to solve and the beat down detective as the main character. I mean, I love those too, but you already know what to expect. Well, this book surprised me for several reasons, one because our main character Dash is not a detective, but someone who used to make problems disappear, especially when involving film stars, leaving him with so many regrets and a blackened soul that he tries to wash clean with alcohol, without any success I might add.
After trying a career as a stand up comedian, a woman asks him for help to find out what happened to his father, after recovering his bones in a dried lake. Madeline’s dad was not without faults I might say, making the story even more intriguing.
What unfolds is a plot worthy of being televised for how good it is! When Madeline and Dash start digging for answers, they find out more than they could ever imagine and the twists are so good! There’s also a parallel plot which is equally twisty and gripping.
Fast paced and with dialogues that will make you laugh, this is a true page turner! Dash and Madeline make quite the couple, their banter enhancing the story massively!
I loved the ending too, not just because of how the various mysteries were solved, but for the insight into Dash’s emotional state. I truly hope to read more about Dash (even if at times he annoyed me), because he felt real.
This was my first book by this author, but I’m looking forward to many more! And you should add this to your tbr now!
Thanks to the author and Datura Books for a copy and this is my honest opinion.
April 27, 2025
This was a great read! A mix between a thriller and a classic whodunnit, this had me forever turning the pages!
Set in LA and the surrounding California area, amongst the backdrop of the climate crisis/wildfires and Hollywood's underbelly filled with all the distasteful goings-on that you would expect, this plot was a snowball that kept building and building.
Dash and Madeline were great protagonists, with their witty banter making me chuckle despite the serious detective work they were both undertaking. I just perhaps wish we had more of Dash's backstory/character development before he got to where we met him at the start of the book.
Despite this and a few incredibly convenient things occurring, I thought this was a brilliant story! There were a couple of great twists in there, too!
I can't wait for future books from Nick with Dash as a protagonist, maybe?....
Rating: 7.5/10 (rounded up!)
Set in LA and the surrounding California area, amongst the backdrop of the climate crisis/wildfires and Hollywood's underbelly filled with all the distasteful goings-on that you would expect, this plot was a snowball that kept building and building.
Dash and Madeline were great protagonists, with their witty banter making me chuckle despite the serious detective work they were both undertaking. I just perhaps wish we had more of Dash's backstory/character development before he got to where we met him at the start of the book.
Despite this and a few incredibly convenient things occurring, I thought this was a brilliant story! There were a couple of great twists in there, too!
I can't wait for future books from Nick with Dash as a protagonist, maybe?....
Rating: 7.5/10 (rounded up!)
May 22, 2025
After a drought reveals the body of her father, Madeline Ironwood enlists the help of Dash McClane, an ex Hollywood fixer turned stand up comic to help her investigate his murder. The story unfolds as a noir, mystery inspired road trip through the seedier parts of California. Dash and Madeline end up navigating crooked cops, Hollywood documentarians, and a coverup at a winery. Both characters are equally cynical and witty so their banter is really enjoyable. I also liked that the author did not force a romance between them just because they were in close proximity. The author did a good job balancing the darker elements with the humor from the characters. While overall, the plot isn’t anything new to the genre, I still think it was a worthwhile read.
Thanks to Datura, and Netgalley for this e-ARC that I chose to read and review
Thanks to Datura, and Netgalley for this e-ARC that I chose to read and review
March 1, 2025
4.5 stars
Dude, this was so good. Where the Bones Lie captivated me on all three fronts I enjoy most in crime thrillers: the characters were fascinating, the setting was like a fully fleshed out living part of the story, and the case took several explosive twists I never could have predicted.
I was OBSESSED with Madeline. She is such a charming enigma. I spent as much of the book trying to figure her out as I did trying to untangle the mystery. Dash was a fantastic MC. Someone resurrect Bogart to play him in the movie adaptation. He was a little bit of a modern noir PI, but also not at all. Kolakowski played with the classic tropes while really creating his own thing - and I enjoyed it so much!
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Dude, this was so good. Where the Bones Lie captivated me on all three fronts I enjoy most in crime thrillers: the characters were fascinating, the setting was like a fully fleshed out living part of the story, and the case took several explosive twists I never could have predicted.
I was OBSESSED with Madeline. She is such a charming enigma. I spent as much of the book trying to figure her out as I did trying to untangle the mystery. Dash was a fantastic MC. Someone resurrect Bogart to play him in the movie adaptation. He was a little bit of a modern noir PI, but also not at all. Kolakowski played with the classic tropes while really creating his own thing - and I enjoyed it so much!
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
March 6, 2025
What a WILD ride. This book honestly went off the rails about halfway through and just absolutely raced to the ending. I loved Dash's background as a professional fixer / coverup agent for the rich and famous. Though I do say, it doesn't seem like it's skill based and he mostly just stumbles into solutions. I also wish he was a tadddd less "mysterious" because it was hard to really connect with him / visualize his character and personality.
This book was all over the place, drama and danger and more drama. If you love an action-packed thriller then this is definitely for you! I know I was yelling out loud as I furiously turned the pages.
Note: Thanks to the publishers for a free review copy; my thoughts and review are my own.
This book was all over the place, drama and danger and more drama. If you love an action-packed thriller then this is definitely for you! I know I was yelling out loud as I furiously turned the pages.
Note: Thanks to the publishers for a free review copy; my thoughts and review are my own.
March 17, 2025
Very enjoyable pulpy detective novel. Gritty and has a great mystery at the center.
August 27, 2025
A slick start to a hopefully new detective series.
October 4, 2024
Thanks to Datura Books for the ARC.
I have read some Kolakowski novels before and they're always smart and funny. This sounded like a bit of a shift in direction, and by the description I thought it would veer into similar territory as Jordan Harper's brilliant book Everybody Knows. A hard metric to live up to, as it is one of my faves from recent years.
However, despite some superficial similarities - the LA setting in the world of sketchy Hollywood PR fixers - it is actually a much different beast. A good chunk of the book isn't even set in LA, but slightly north in wine country. Where the Harper novel was very much channelling the jagged freneticism of James Ellroy in its prose style, this was more akin to a classic PI story where the 'hero' is a reluctant and morally compromised character - not to mention quick with a pointed barb. So...maybe more of a Ross MacDonald vibe? The tone is actually closer to Travis McGee - funny, loose, cool. There's even a boat!
Like all detective stories, there's a gradual build up of clues and twists, some of which I was half expecting given the nature of these things. This doesn't really lessen the enjoyment though. The tropes are part of the fun. I did find myself getting lost in the weeds a bit in terms of who did what somewhere in the middle, but again that is always the case with mysteries (at least for me...maybe I'm just a silly billy) and it all comes together in a nice symmetrical way by the end.
Definitely recommended for fans of crime fiction and mysteries which are a little offbeat but still bring all the time-tested pleasures of the genre. Also sounds like the start of a very cool series.
I have read some Kolakowski novels before and they're always smart and funny. This sounded like a bit of a shift in direction, and by the description I thought it would veer into similar territory as Jordan Harper's brilliant book Everybody Knows. A hard metric to live up to, as it is one of my faves from recent years.
However, despite some superficial similarities - the LA setting in the world of sketchy Hollywood PR fixers - it is actually a much different beast. A good chunk of the book isn't even set in LA, but slightly north in wine country. Where the Harper novel was very much channelling the jagged freneticism of James Ellroy in its prose style, this was more akin to a classic PI story where the 'hero' is a reluctant and morally compromised character - not to mention quick with a pointed barb. So...maybe more of a Ross MacDonald vibe? The tone is actually closer to Travis McGee - funny, loose, cool. There's even a boat!
Like all detective stories, there's a gradual build up of clues and twists, some of which I was half expecting given the nature of these things. This doesn't really lessen the enjoyment though. The tropes are part of the fun. I did find myself getting lost in the weeds a bit in terms of who did what somewhere in the middle, but again that is always the case with mysteries (at least for me...maybe I'm just a silly billy) and it all comes together in a nice symmetrical way by the end.
Definitely recommended for fans of crime fiction and mysteries which are a little offbeat but still bring all the time-tested pleasures of the genre. Also sounds like the start of a very cool series.
March 19, 2025
"I had cracked the heads of hangers-on who'd leaked to the press, stolen phones and laptops from expensive villas, rescued kidnapped dogs, and escorted pregnant girlfriends onto buses bound for Omaha, all so the studios could keep their stars untarnished and the money rolling in. How do you ever scrub clean of that?"
Dash is a former Hollywood fixer who agrees to help Madeline find out who killed her infamous criminal father, after his bones are discovered in a barrel.
WHERE THE BONES LIE is EVERYTHING I could ask for and MORE. With a delectable mystery, road trip adventure, and a slew of unique and memorable characters who are larger than life, this book fit me like a glove. Don’t even get me started on Madeline driving my dream car, an old school GREEN (my fav) Mustang with a manual transmission and suicide knob (IFKYK!), and she KNOWS how to drive it!! She’s a firecracker. ALL. THE. YEAAAAS!!
The crackling chemistry between Dash and Madeline is reminiscent of a buddy cop movie and is NON-SEXUAL, with no romance whatsoever. THANK YOU! Just two people who get along alarmingly well and CLICK. Their witty banter had me laughing more times than I can count. It is HIGHLY quotable with tons of movie references. I DIG it! Nick Kolakowski has written a stunner of a crime story that is BEGGING to be adapted to film! Let’s grab Quentin Tarantino to direct it, but the screenwriting MUST be ALL Nick!
Do surprises come out of the woodwork? ABSOLUTELY! I was able to predict a few things, but others knocked me upside the head in THE. BEST. WAY! This is a twisty ride for sure, and with a pace that slowly increases into an all out action packed race to the finish, I was up until 1:30AM in the morning holding on for dear life! I simply could not put this down! (Nick, you owe me some hours of sleep.)
This absolute BANGER was a four star read from the jump but when everything hit the fan and the momentum rocketed to an explosive conclusion...it rolled promptly into a SOLID FIVE STAR! At the end I literally said, “YEASSS” and immediately wanted more! Where is book TWO?!
WHERE THE BONES LIE is an absolute delight, full of sardonic wit, sarcastic humor, a mystery that keeps you guessing, characters you NEED more of, and action packed goodness. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!!!
____
FAVORITE QUOTES:
"I woke up feeling like a black hole had pierced the core of my being, draining all hope and light. not to get too dramatic about it or anything. It wasn't the black hole's first visit."
"Only by flattening the gas pedal to the floor could I hope to keep up with her car's glorious cylinders. I'm as environmentally friendly as the next mammal trapped on a burning planet, but the sight of that sleek steel shimmering in the California sunlight, the traffic parting before it as if blessed, made me a little sad for the extinction of those great, gas-powered beasts that had once roamed this endless country. In a decade or two - if humanity survived - everyone would be driving a battery-powered lozenge."
" 'Hey, it's not filled with creepy dolls,' Madeline said, rubbing a finger along the back of the chairs.. 'The biggest sin here is cheap IKEA crap.' "
"On every wall, colorful signs advised me to 'CHILL OUT' and 'HANG IN THERE' and '#INSPIRE'. I would have taken creepy dolls instead."
____
Potential spoiler content warnings below.
⚠️Content warnings: panic attacks, violence, gun violence, knife violence, strangulation
Dash is a former Hollywood fixer who agrees to help Madeline find out who killed her infamous criminal father, after his bones are discovered in a barrel.
WHERE THE BONES LIE is EVERYTHING I could ask for and MORE. With a delectable mystery, road trip adventure, and a slew of unique and memorable characters who are larger than life, this book fit me like a glove. Don’t even get me started on Madeline driving my dream car, an old school GREEN (my fav) Mustang with a manual transmission and suicide knob (IFKYK!), and she KNOWS how to drive it!! She’s a firecracker. ALL. THE. YEAAAAS!!
The crackling chemistry between Dash and Madeline is reminiscent of a buddy cop movie and is NON-SEXUAL, with no romance whatsoever. THANK YOU! Just two people who get along alarmingly well and CLICK. Their witty banter had me laughing more times than I can count. It is HIGHLY quotable with tons of movie references. I DIG it! Nick Kolakowski has written a stunner of a crime story that is BEGGING to be adapted to film! Let’s grab Quentin Tarantino to direct it, but the screenwriting MUST be ALL Nick!
Do surprises come out of the woodwork? ABSOLUTELY! I was able to predict a few things, but others knocked me upside the head in THE. BEST. WAY! This is a twisty ride for sure, and with a pace that slowly increases into an all out action packed race to the finish, I was up until 1:30AM in the morning holding on for dear life! I simply could not put this down! (Nick, you owe me some hours of sleep.)
This absolute BANGER was a four star read from the jump but when everything hit the fan and the momentum rocketed to an explosive conclusion...it rolled promptly into a SOLID FIVE STAR! At the end I literally said, “YEASSS” and immediately wanted more! Where is book TWO?!
WHERE THE BONES LIE is an absolute delight, full of sardonic wit, sarcastic humor, a mystery that keeps you guessing, characters you NEED more of, and action packed goodness. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!!!
____
FAVORITE QUOTES:
"I woke up feeling like a black hole had pierced the core of my being, draining all hope and light. not to get too dramatic about it or anything. It wasn't the black hole's first visit."
"Only by flattening the gas pedal to the floor could I hope to keep up with her car's glorious cylinders. I'm as environmentally friendly as the next mammal trapped on a burning planet, but the sight of that sleek steel shimmering in the California sunlight, the traffic parting before it as if blessed, made me a little sad for the extinction of those great, gas-powered beasts that had once roamed this endless country. In a decade or two - if humanity survived - everyone would be driving a battery-powered lozenge."
" 'Hey, it's not filled with creepy dolls,' Madeline said, rubbing a finger along the back of the chairs.. 'The biggest sin here is cheap IKEA crap.' "
"On every wall, colorful signs advised me to 'CHILL OUT' and 'HANG IN THERE' and '#INSPIRE'. I would have taken creepy dolls instead."
____
Potential spoiler content warnings below.
⚠️Content warnings: panic attacks, violence, gun violence, knife violence, strangulation
March 23, 2025
The basic formula, truly, never gets old. Investigator, client, murder. Oh, and California never gets old, either. Not really. The key is pumping life and character into your main players. Attitude, backstory, all of that. And Nick Kolakowski brings plenty of juice to Where The Bones Lie, a snappy detective novel featuring a cynical private eye named Dash Fuller.
Cynical, jaded, nihilistic, witty. And living with a general sense of dread. That’s Dash Fuller. The wit part makes sense. Fuller is a struggling—okay, failing—stand-up comic. “I woke up feeling like a black hole had pierced the core of my being, draining all hope and light. Not to get too dramatic about it or anything. It wasn’t the black hole’s first visit.”
Fuller isn’t a licensed investigator. He once worked for a company helping fix or protect the careers of Hollywood celebrities, but he’s “exploring” what it means to go independent.
A young woman named Madeline Ironwood hires Fuller. Madeline’s father was notorious, the subject of an eight-part true crime series and a podcast, too. Ken Ironwood disappeared when Madeline was two. He smuggled drugs. And now, thanks to a drought-shrunken lake in the fictional town of San Douglas, up in the wine country near Santa Barbara, his body has turned up in a barrel that was supposed to stay sunk. Madeline admits to being the “vengeful type” and wants Fuller to find the killers, alive or dead.
Fuller might be cynical, but that doesn’t mean he lacks empathy. “Imagine spending your life wondering what happened to your father,” thinks Fuller, “only for a bored cop to call and tell you that your old man’s moldering remains were found in a barrel in a dried-up lake. It would have shaken my soul to its foundations, no wonder she wanted answers.”
The pair head off to San Douglas and share a rental cabin. Thankfully, Kolakowski keeps the Dash-Madeline relationship platonic. The reception in town is chilly. Wine and chocolates are not necessarily intended as warm greetings. There’s a wildfire bearing down on San Douglas, there are car chases, there are cops and vintners keeping secrets. Fuller is analytical and keen on staying one step ahead of the danger.
“Our part of the valley was shrouded in darkness, still and empty. I rumbled into our driveway. As my headlights swept over the front of our rental house, my paranoia meter jumped from Cautious Green to Nervous Yellow. Nothing seemed amiss, and yet I was seized by an almost overpowering urge to pull my pistol and reverse back down the driveway.”
Fuller’s past has a way of catching up with him and, one could argue, so does the murder investigation into the fate of Ken Ironwood. Fuller has got ethical lines he will not cross, others around him not so much. Where The Bones Lie offers a classic detective-led romp with a memorable lead character who realizes he’s still working out his “issues.”
Groundbreaking? That’s not the point. Lots of fun? Oh yes.
Cynical, jaded, nihilistic, witty. And living with a general sense of dread. That’s Dash Fuller. The wit part makes sense. Fuller is a struggling—okay, failing—stand-up comic. “I woke up feeling like a black hole had pierced the core of my being, draining all hope and light. Not to get too dramatic about it or anything. It wasn’t the black hole’s first visit.”
Fuller isn’t a licensed investigator. He once worked for a company helping fix or protect the careers of Hollywood celebrities, but he’s “exploring” what it means to go independent.
A young woman named Madeline Ironwood hires Fuller. Madeline’s father was notorious, the subject of an eight-part true crime series and a podcast, too. Ken Ironwood disappeared when Madeline was two. He smuggled drugs. And now, thanks to a drought-shrunken lake in the fictional town of San Douglas, up in the wine country near Santa Barbara, his body has turned up in a barrel that was supposed to stay sunk. Madeline admits to being the “vengeful type” and wants Fuller to find the killers, alive or dead.
Fuller might be cynical, but that doesn’t mean he lacks empathy. “Imagine spending your life wondering what happened to your father,” thinks Fuller, “only for a bored cop to call and tell you that your old man’s moldering remains were found in a barrel in a dried-up lake. It would have shaken my soul to its foundations, no wonder she wanted answers.”
The pair head off to San Douglas and share a rental cabin. Thankfully, Kolakowski keeps the Dash-Madeline relationship platonic. The reception in town is chilly. Wine and chocolates are not necessarily intended as warm greetings. There’s a wildfire bearing down on San Douglas, there are car chases, there are cops and vintners keeping secrets. Fuller is analytical and keen on staying one step ahead of the danger.
“Our part of the valley was shrouded in darkness, still and empty. I rumbled into our driveway. As my headlights swept over the front of our rental house, my paranoia meter jumped from Cautious Green to Nervous Yellow. Nothing seemed amiss, and yet I was seized by an almost overpowering urge to pull my pistol and reverse back down the driveway.”
Fuller’s past has a way of catching up with him and, one could argue, so does the murder investigation into the fate of Ken Ironwood. Fuller has got ethical lines he will not cross, others around him not so much. Where The Bones Lie offers a classic detective-led romp with a memorable lead character who realizes he’s still working out his “issues.”
Groundbreaking? That’s not the point. Lots of fun? Oh yes.
November 26, 2024
Nick Kolakowski knows that LA crime fiction is a well-trodden beat populated with PIs, adventurers, thieves, and jokers of all sorts. Fortunately that traffic-congested asphalt and the concrete running between those dark alleys are wide enough for one more. With Where The Bones Lie, Kolakowski hits that street with all the energy of a muscle car yet delivers the smoothest of rides.
Comedian by day and PR fixit man by night, Dash Fuller - a perfect Hollywood PI name if there ever was one - is hired by red haired hipster Madeline Ironwood to find out who killed her father, a smuggler and murderer of notorious repute. But Dash ain’t really a PI. Just a fixer, ma’am. And as for Madeline? She’s young enough that she is not entirely sure she wants the full truth anyway. After all, this is Los Angeles, and lies can look pretty enough.
Kolakowski provides more of a stumbling-and-bumbling around adventure than a noir-ish procedural. Lighthearted like Gregory Mcdonald at times; all twisty and turny like a Ellory yarn later on. Interestingly along the ride, Where The Bones Lie becomes something unique: a quest for understanding the truth, deciding who is hiding it the best, and an overall answer for where one sits in the world. Albeit one complete with classic Mustangs, murder, figures in masks, and the occasional backstabbing. Kolakowski has created an wholly entertaining crime fiction entry that feels fresh and modern, and as safe as a Yelp review.
Kolakowski mixes in humor to narrative - Dash is a comedian, or is trying to at least - but the comedy never goes full on absurd. If anything, there is a bit of a nervous tick to it all reminiscent of Gerry Conway’s run on Amazing Spider-Man back in the seventies where the titular hero used quips as a defense mechanism. Dash never gets annoying. If anything, his thine-own-self-be-true, nice-guy character is refreshing to read. He second-guesses. He rabbits instead of fights. And he doesn’t deviously maneuver into Madeline’s pants.
Her vintage ride is another matter.
Where The Bones Lie is a great genre read that doesn’t abide by all the genre rules. Sometimes, like during Dash and Madeline’s trip north of DTLA, you gotta go offroad where the wildfires are. Sometimes you need to feel those flames crisping at the edges to keep things hot. Where The Bones Lie is so hot it's cool.
I’m looking forward to Kolakowski’s next conflagration.
Want more hot stuff? Check out Read @ Joes for more reviews, stories, and a vintage ride or two.
Comedian by day and PR fixit man by night, Dash Fuller - a perfect Hollywood PI name if there ever was one - is hired by red haired hipster Madeline Ironwood to find out who killed her father, a smuggler and murderer of notorious repute. But Dash ain’t really a PI. Just a fixer, ma’am. And as for Madeline? She’s young enough that she is not entirely sure she wants the full truth anyway. After all, this is Los Angeles, and lies can look pretty enough.
Kolakowski provides more of a stumbling-and-bumbling around adventure than a noir-ish procedural. Lighthearted like Gregory Mcdonald at times; all twisty and turny like a Ellory yarn later on. Interestingly along the ride, Where The Bones Lie becomes something unique: a quest for understanding the truth, deciding who is hiding it the best, and an overall answer for where one sits in the world. Albeit one complete with classic Mustangs, murder, figures in masks, and the occasional backstabbing. Kolakowski has created an wholly entertaining crime fiction entry that feels fresh and modern, and as safe as a Yelp review.
Kolakowski mixes in humor to narrative - Dash is a comedian, or is trying to at least - but the comedy never goes full on absurd. If anything, there is a bit of a nervous tick to it all reminiscent of Gerry Conway’s run on Amazing Spider-Man back in the seventies where the titular hero used quips as a defense mechanism. Dash never gets annoying. If anything, his thine-own-self-be-true, nice-guy character is refreshing to read. He second-guesses. He rabbits instead of fights. And he doesn’t deviously maneuver into Madeline’s pants.
Her vintage ride is another matter.
Where The Bones Lie is a great genre read that doesn’t abide by all the genre rules. Sometimes, like during Dash and Madeline’s trip north of DTLA, you gotta go offroad where the wildfires are. Sometimes you need to feel those flames crisping at the edges to keep things hot. Where The Bones Lie is so hot it's cool.
I’m looking forward to Kolakowski’s next conflagration.
Want more hot stuff? Check out Read @ Joes for more reviews, stories, and a vintage ride or two.
February 5, 2025
I was really pleased to get an ARC of Where The Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski. It's a story that will be familiar to many a fan of vintage noir, more specifically to the Private Eye of the Hollywood variety. It shares many of the tropes that might be expected in the genre and manages to provide hommage to what has gone before while carving out something fresh and new.
Dash Fuller is falling flat on the comedy circuit while attempting to create a new and clean life for himself, when up pops an old acquaintance. Manny is a high-end lowlife fixer who will sort out the complications of studios and those involved in the celebrity industry if they're prepared to pay him enough.
Dash is flat broke and is in no position to say no. In spite of his better judgement, he sets out in search of a couple of big players who have disappeared off the radar to carry on their bizarre lifestyle.
Almost in parallel to this, a young woman is desperate to find out what happened to her father, a shady dude who disappeared many years earlier and whose body has recently been found in a lake after the water level dropped significanlty. She enlists Dash's help and off they go to try and unlock the skeletons from their closet.
The cases allow us an insight into a fascinating world that provides a great backdrop against which the book unfolds.
The good news is that it's a tense and fun read that will entertain anyone who likes a complex PI story where layers are stripped off painfully until all that's left are the bare bones of the truth.
The better news, at least in my opinion, is that there may well be more to come. It definitely feels like a series opener and I think that it's likely that the next tale will be even stronger and richer - Dash Fuller is someone who is deep and will take some getting to know and I have a sense that the more of him that is revealed, the more we're going to want to stick around.
Go check it out.
Dash Fuller is falling flat on the comedy circuit while attempting to create a new and clean life for himself, when up pops an old acquaintance. Manny is a high-end lowlife fixer who will sort out the complications of studios and those involved in the celebrity industry if they're prepared to pay him enough.
Dash is flat broke and is in no position to say no. In spite of his better judgement, he sets out in search of a couple of big players who have disappeared off the radar to carry on their bizarre lifestyle.
Almost in parallel to this, a young woman is desperate to find out what happened to her father, a shady dude who disappeared many years earlier and whose body has recently been found in a lake after the water level dropped significanlty. She enlists Dash's help and off they go to try and unlock the skeletons from their closet.
The cases allow us an insight into a fascinating world that provides a great backdrop against which the book unfolds.
The good news is that it's a tense and fun read that will entertain anyone who likes a complex PI story where layers are stripped off painfully until all that's left are the bare bones of the truth.
The better news, at least in my opinion, is that there may well be more to come. It definitely feels like a series opener and I think that it's likely that the next tale will be even stronger and richer - Dash Fuller is someone who is deep and will take some getting to know and I have a sense that the more of him that is revealed, the more we're going to want to stick around.
Go check it out.
March 19, 2025
(4.25/5 stars)
Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski is a fun mystery featuring a former Hollywood PR fixer.
This was such a fun read! It took me a little bit to get into it, but then I was absolutely strapped in and enjoying the ride. There were a few twists I definitely called, but it zigged and zagged and exceeded my expectations. I especially loved the final ~25% of the book; I was at the edge of my seat and felt propelled to keep reading.
I really loved Madeline and her teammate rapport with Dash. It's always great to see mutual respect between (non-romantic) partners in mysteries. There's some good neurodivergent representation in Dash, he suffers from anxiety and panic attacks.
Sometimes the clues and answers felt a little on the convenient side, but I still had fun reading. I'll list it in the CWs, but I do want to specify it here too, especially after the last few months: a wildfire is a plot point in this book. Obviously this book was written long before the actual events, but it's worth giving folks a big head's up.
I'm truly hopeful that based on the ending, this is the start of a series! I'd love to continue to follow Dash on other adventures. I think this would make an amazing tv series as well; I'd absolutely watch it.
If you're a fan of dark comedy, detective/sleuth mysteries, or books set around Hollywood, you absolutely need to pick this one up.
CW: California wildfires
I received a complimentary review copy from Datura and NetGalley. All opinions contained herein are my own.
If you want to see more from me, check out my blog, Bookstagram, TheStoryGraph, or Bluesky.
Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski is a fun mystery featuring a former Hollywood PR fixer.
This was such a fun read! It took me a little bit to get into it, but then I was absolutely strapped in and enjoying the ride. There were a few twists I definitely called, but it zigged and zagged and exceeded my expectations. I especially loved the final ~25% of the book; I was at the edge of my seat and felt propelled to keep reading.
I really loved Madeline and her teammate rapport with Dash. It's always great to see mutual respect between (non-romantic) partners in mysteries. There's some good neurodivergent representation in Dash, he suffers from anxiety and panic attacks.
Sometimes the clues and answers felt a little on the convenient side, but I still had fun reading. I'll list it in the CWs, but I do want to specify it here too, especially after the last few months: a wildfire is a plot point in this book. Obviously this book was written long before the actual events, but it's worth giving folks a big head's up.
I'm truly hopeful that based on the ending, this is the start of a series! I'd love to continue to follow Dash on other adventures. I think this would make an amazing tv series as well; I'd absolutely watch it.
If you're a fan of dark comedy, detective/sleuth mysteries, or books set around Hollywood, you absolutely need to pick this one up.
CW: California wildfires
I received a complimentary review copy from Datura and NetGalley. All opinions contained herein are my own.
If you want to see more from me, check out my blog, Bookstagram, TheStoryGraph, or Bluesky.
May 3, 2025
4.25stars- WHERE THE BONES LIE by Nick Kolakowski is a stand alone, contemporary, adult, murder mystery thriller focusing on former Hollywood fixer turned struggling standup comedian Dash Fuller.
Told from first person perspective (Dash) WHERE THE BONES LIE follows Dash Fuller as he struggles with his latest career. Failing as a late night comedian in the wake of his last disastrous ‘fix’, Dash’s mentor and ‘cleaner’ Manny begs for help with a missing Hollywood star. Although a success, the end result is a reminder of what was, and Dash reconsiders his future at the bottom of a bottle but when a young woman, Madeline Ironwood, asks for help investigating the murder of her father, a man who disappeared years before, Dash is determined to get answers but never expected to become a target of some powerful people.
The world building is imaginative and inviting as we are up close and personal with Dash and Madeline as they go in search of the truth. Madeline’s father’s remains were discovered in a dried up lake bed but law enforcement is refusing to give further details. Not all is as it appears to be as the body count increases with each step closer to the truth.
There is large ensemble cast of colorful, questionable and hapless secondary and supporting characters. We are introduced to actors Amber Rodney and Karl Quaid; Vintner Mike Vonn; Dash’s mentor Manny and Deputy Sheriff Reid, as well as an odd assortment of assassins, goons and San Douglas townies.
WHERE THE BONES LIE is a story of secrets and lies, murder, greed and madness, betrayal and vengeance. The character driven premise is dramatic and edgy; the characters are ill-fated and dynamic. The author leaves an opening for a possible continuation.
copy supplied for review
Told from first person perspective (Dash) WHERE THE BONES LIE follows Dash Fuller as he struggles with his latest career. Failing as a late night comedian in the wake of his last disastrous ‘fix’, Dash’s mentor and ‘cleaner’ Manny begs for help with a missing Hollywood star. Although a success, the end result is a reminder of what was, and Dash reconsiders his future at the bottom of a bottle but when a young woman, Madeline Ironwood, asks for help investigating the murder of her father, a man who disappeared years before, Dash is determined to get answers but never expected to become a target of some powerful people.
The world building is imaginative and inviting as we are up close and personal with Dash and Madeline as they go in search of the truth. Madeline’s father’s remains were discovered in a dried up lake bed but law enforcement is refusing to give further details. Not all is as it appears to be as the body count increases with each step closer to the truth.
There is large ensemble cast of colorful, questionable and hapless secondary and supporting characters. We are introduced to actors Amber Rodney and Karl Quaid; Vintner Mike Vonn; Dash’s mentor Manny and Deputy Sheriff Reid, as well as an odd assortment of assassins, goons and San Douglas townies.
WHERE THE BONES LIE is a story of secrets and lies, murder, greed and madness, betrayal and vengeance. The character driven premise is dramatic and edgy; the characters are ill-fated and dynamic. The author leaves an opening for a possible continuation.
copy supplied for review
March 17, 2025
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 Stars)
If you like your thrillers with a dash of dark humour, a sprinkling of cynicism, and a healthy dose of Hollywood's seedy underbelly, Where the Bones Lie is a must-read.
Meet Dash Fuller: the kind of guy who’s spent so long cleaning up Hollywood’s messes that he's practically swimming in bourbon and regret. He’s a burnout with a talent for erasing scandal, but when Madeline Ironwood walks into his office with a family mystery, things get a little more complicated.
Madeline is searching for answers about her father, Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler who disappeared years ago. The discovery of his skeleton in a barrel at the bottom of a lake has her digging up old secrets and Dash can’t help but get sucked into her quest. As the duo uncovers a web of lies, crooked cops, and powerful figures in Hollywood, they stumble across a conspiracy that's as deadly as it is shocking.
Kolakowski’s writing is sharp and witty, blending a fast-paced narrative with a dark, noir vibe. Dash's snarky internal monologue adds a fun layer of humour to the otherwise tense atmosphere.
The twists are genuinely surprising, making for a wild ride that keeps you hooked until the very end.
While the plot is strong and the characters engaging, the story occasionally slows down in places where the investigation feels a bit drawn out. Still, Where the Bones Lie is a thrilling, gritty tale with twists that will have you questioning everything especially in the world of L.A.'s most notorious.
A hard-hitting, noir-style thriller that’s both darkly hilarious and gripping.
If you like your thrillers with a dash of dark humour, a sprinkling of cynicism, and a healthy dose of Hollywood's seedy underbelly, Where the Bones Lie is a must-read.
Meet Dash Fuller: the kind of guy who’s spent so long cleaning up Hollywood’s messes that he's practically swimming in bourbon and regret. He’s a burnout with a talent for erasing scandal, but when Madeline Ironwood walks into his office with a family mystery, things get a little more complicated.
Madeline is searching for answers about her father, Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler who disappeared years ago. The discovery of his skeleton in a barrel at the bottom of a lake has her digging up old secrets and Dash can’t help but get sucked into her quest. As the duo uncovers a web of lies, crooked cops, and powerful figures in Hollywood, they stumble across a conspiracy that's as deadly as it is shocking.
Kolakowski’s writing is sharp and witty, blending a fast-paced narrative with a dark, noir vibe. Dash's snarky internal monologue adds a fun layer of humour to the otherwise tense atmosphere.
The twists are genuinely surprising, making for a wild ride that keeps you hooked until the very end.
While the plot is strong and the characters engaging, the story occasionally slows down in places where the investigation feels a bit drawn out. Still, Where the Bones Lie is a thrilling, gritty tale with twists that will have you questioning everything especially in the world of L.A.'s most notorious.
A hard-hitting, noir-style thriller that’s both darkly hilarious and gripping.
November 11, 2024
Where The Bones Lie
Nick Kolakowski
March 22, 2025
Datura Books
When I started my reading journey, I could not have told you what a noir thriller is. Today – I will pick this over just about anything and I am loving the authors that are putting them out. I was lucky enough to read Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski and I enjoyed every single page.
Everything that a reader could want in a crime thriller has been covered by Kolakowski. Dash Fuller is a hard boiled, cynical, recovering alcoholic, who is chased by demons and is trying to heal from his past by being a PI (or a comedian) in the Hollywood area where drugs, secrets and murder abound. Dash is flawed and so relatable. He thinks he has ‘outlaw speed’ when it comes to acquiring a target, but really doesn’t want to add a body to his ledger.
Madeline Ironwood, daughter of missing thief, murderer and all-around Hollywood bad guy, Ken Ironwood, hires Dash to help her find her father’s killer when his remains are found in a barrel in the middle of a drying lake in Northern California. Madeline is sassy and unpredictable. She is hardheaded and strong. So, when they pair up for a road trip to see what they can uncover, they get way more than they bargained for.
Corruption, disillusionment, and morally ambiguous characters follow Dash and Madeline as they uncover secrets and lies at every turn. I did not want to put this down until the very end – and now I am sad it is over. Fingers crossed there will be more!
Nick Kolakowski
March 22, 2025
Datura Books
When I started my reading journey, I could not have told you what a noir thriller is. Today – I will pick this over just about anything and I am loving the authors that are putting them out. I was lucky enough to read Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski and I enjoyed every single page.
Everything that a reader could want in a crime thriller has been covered by Kolakowski. Dash Fuller is a hard boiled, cynical, recovering alcoholic, who is chased by demons and is trying to heal from his past by being a PI (or a comedian) in the Hollywood area where drugs, secrets and murder abound. Dash is flawed and so relatable. He thinks he has ‘outlaw speed’ when it comes to acquiring a target, but really doesn’t want to add a body to his ledger.
Madeline Ironwood, daughter of missing thief, murderer and all-around Hollywood bad guy, Ken Ironwood, hires Dash to help her find her father’s killer when his remains are found in a barrel in the middle of a drying lake in Northern California. Madeline is sassy and unpredictable. She is hardheaded and strong. So, when they pair up for a road trip to see what they can uncover, they get way more than they bargained for.
Corruption, disillusionment, and morally ambiguous characters follow Dash and Madeline as they uncover secrets and lies at every turn. I did not want to put this down until the very end – and now I am sad it is over. Fingers crossed there will be more!
February 15, 2025
Thank you for the free ebook Datura Books @daturabooks , Netgalley @netgalley , and Nick Kolakowski @nickkolakowski
“Where the Bones Lie” by Nick Kolakowski ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery Noir Location: San Douglas, north of Santa Barbara, California, USA. Time: present.
Dash Fuller is a cynical burnout who loves bourbon a little too much. Why? He’s spent years in Hollywood’s underbelly as a fixer/bagman helping disappear the film industry’s worst secrets. Now they want him back for 1 more job-finding superhero movie star Karl Quaid. Madeline is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, notorious smuggler/murderer who disappeared 20 years ago. Ken’s skeleton was just found in a barrel at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and Madeline wants to know who killed him. When she asks Dash for help, he sees it as a chance for redemption. They head for San Dauglas where they uncover a massive conspiracy amid raging wildfires.
Author Kolakowski has written a fast-paced, darkly funny noir thriller that touches on crime, family relationships, redemption-and climate change. It’s particularly relevant due to the recent LA wildfires. He has a way with cynically amusing prose: (“…skin so sun-darkened it was almost purple…She reminded me of a burned-out match.”) (“In my experience, cops ask a lot of questions…They can’t help themselves.”)(“…a pelaton of bikers in bright spandex…”) Kolakowski adds in lots of pop culture references, both present and vintage. If you like crime noir based in present day with a scoop of humor, pick up this book! It’s 4 stars from me🌵📚💁🏼♀️
“Where the Bones Lie” by Nick Kolakowski ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery Noir Location: San Douglas, north of Santa Barbara, California, USA. Time: present.
Dash Fuller is a cynical burnout who loves bourbon a little too much. Why? He’s spent years in Hollywood’s underbelly as a fixer/bagman helping disappear the film industry’s worst secrets. Now they want him back for 1 more job-finding superhero movie star Karl Quaid. Madeline is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, notorious smuggler/murderer who disappeared 20 years ago. Ken’s skeleton was just found in a barrel at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and Madeline wants to know who killed him. When she asks Dash for help, he sees it as a chance for redemption. They head for San Dauglas where they uncover a massive conspiracy amid raging wildfires.
Author Kolakowski has written a fast-paced, darkly funny noir thriller that touches on crime, family relationships, redemption-and climate change. It’s particularly relevant due to the recent LA wildfires. He has a way with cynically amusing prose: (“…skin so sun-darkened it was almost purple…She reminded me of a burned-out match.”) (“In my experience, cops ask a lot of questions…They can’t help themselves.”)(“…a pelaton of bikers in bright spandex…”) Kolakowski adds in lots of pop culture references, both present and vintage. If you like crime noir based in present day with a scoop of humor, pick up this book! It’s 4 stars from me🌵📚💁🏼♀️
February 18, 2025
If you are a fan of old school, hard-boiled crime fiction, you are going to want to pick up a copy of Where The Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski. It has all of the elements you’ll love – disenchanted investigator, feisty female character, seedy underworld operatives and a convoluted crime to be followed to the bitter end.
I am not a big reader of this genre but I do like to dip my toe in now and again and, having dipped my toe in here, I am happy to confirm that you should plunge ahead, the water is lovely. I enjoyed every minute of this book and was on the edge of my seat throughout.
Our heroic narrator is Dash, a former Hollywood fixer turned standup comedian, although he is isn’t turning out to be as successful at the latter as he was at the former. When his former mentor tempts him back to do one last job, he is reluctant but agreeable, although he soon wishes he hadn’t taken it on, as it is stirring up some bad memories and reminds him why he quit in the first place.
However, he is then approached by a woman who is investigating the death of her father, who has been missing for years and whose body has recently been discovered. Dash agrees to help, but it soon becomes clear there is more to the case that they anticipated and they head straight into danger, and the plot takes on more twists and turns than a rollercoaster.
The plot is full of intrigue, red herrings, double dealings and deadly peril and will have you guessing and gasping throughout. Dash is suitably tortured and jaded, Madleine is quick-witted, sharp-tongued and ballsy and the baddies are sinister and determined. The book has plenty to say about Hollywood corruption, morality and climate change and the whole thing was just hella entertaining. All in all, a fabulous read.
I am not a big reader of this genre but I do like to dip my toe in now and again and, having dipped my toe in here, I am happy to confirm that you should plunge ahead, the water is lovely. I enjoyed every minute of this book and was on the edge of my seat throughout.
Our heroic narrator is Dash, a former Hollywood fixer turned standup comedian, although he is isn’t turning out to be as successful at the latter as he was at the former. When his former mentor tempts him back to do one last job, he is reluctant but agreeable, although he soon wishes he hadn’t taken it on, as it is stirring up some bad memories and reminds him why he quit in the first place.
However, he is then approached by a woman who is investigating the death of her father, who has been missing for years and whose body has recently been discovered. Dash agrees to help, but it soon becomes clear there is more to the case that they anticipated and they head straight into danger, and the plot takes on more twists and turns than a rollercoaster.
The plot is full of intrigue, red herrings, double dealings and deadly peril and will have you guessing and gasping throughout. Dash is suitably tortured and jaded, Madleine is quick-witted, sharp-tongued and ballsy and the baddies are sinister and determined. The book has plenty to say about Hollywood corruption, morality and climate change and the whole thing was just hella entertaining. All in all, a fabulous read.
March 26, 2025
This was a new author to me so I wasn’t fully sure what to expect, however, this is an impressive read which threw in plenty of curve balls. A read which looks at the seedier side of California, where movie stars and gangsters collide and strips away at the layers of the past and hidden secrets
A read which offers a refreshing change
A modern day thriller with a quality to the writing which harks back to the classics
It’s a wonderful slice of American Noir fiction undercut with a dry humor running throughout, a whip-smart read
Cleverly and a deeply thoughtful plot, what starts out as a search for the truth in finding why Madelines father was killed soon becomes anything but. The writing throughout the book is crisp with a strongly written narrative and protagonists which get under our skin
It has all the hallmarks of a gritty read, a rollercoaster of a read
Dash is an interestingly written character, he has a moral compass where the present may well be informed by his past which is alluded to that he does some not nice things, his tailored suits are now hung in favour of the more casual down at heel look, a want to be comedian playing the low down clubs, still someone who can assess the situation, in a way a reluctant detective, he seems to have this aura of self doubt, when he is actually astute with a desire to stay alive
I also enjoyed the interplay between Dash and Madeline, the subtle one liners the ability to shock each other, the mutual respect between the pair, also refreshing that this never strays into anything else, they need all their resourcefulness to stay ahead of the game
The locations within the book also play more than their part in adding to the atmosphere, wonderfully descriptive you get a real sense of place.
It’s not a fast paced read but it does take you on a journey, along the way you’ll meet plenty of interesting characters who are superbly written you get a real sense of who they are and the type of people they are, by the end though the pages are turning fast thanks to the drama poured into the writing. The writing also gives the reader a sense of urgency which keeps everything flowing.
It is really difficult to say much without giving anything away but boy does the author know how to twist things around that leave you speechless, expect the unexpected in this gritty and compelling read. The way the story plays out among the wildfires heightens the tension and doesn’t let you stop and take a breath. A game of cat and mouse where the stakes are high
Overall, this was read which drew me in with its premise of what was to follow, which piqued my interest by the end I was applauding the author for the way he was able grab hold of me, and to stop and take stock of what I was reading, the plot poses many questions and challenges what you know
This is a book which deserves to widely read, pick it up you won’t be disappointed. An author I will be looking out for.
A read which offers a refreshing change
A modern day thriller with a quality to the writing which harks back to the classics
It’s a wonderful slice of American Noir fiction undercut with a dry humor running throughout, a whip-smart read
Cleverly and a deeply thoughtful plot, what starts out as a search for the truth in finding why Madelines father was killed soon becomes anything but. The writing throughout the book is crisp with a strongly written narrative and protagonists which get under our skin
It has all the hallmarks of a gritty read, a rollercoaster of a read
Dash is an interestingly written character, he has a moral compass where the present may well be informed by his past which is alluded to that he does some not nice things, his tailored suits are now hung in favour of the more casual down at heel look, a want to be comedian playing the low down clubs, still someone who can assess the situation, in a way a reluctant detective, he seems to have this aura of self doubt, when he is actually astute with a desire to stay alive
I also enjoyed the interplay between Dash and Madeline, the subtle one liners the ability to shock each other, the mutual respect between the pair, also refreshing that this never strays into anything else, they need all their resourcefulness to stay ahead of the game
The locations within the book also play more than their part in adding to the atmosphere, wonderfully descriptive you get a real sense of place.
It’s not a fast paced read but it does take you on a journey, along the way you’ll meet plenty of interesting characters who are superbly written you get a real sense of who they are and the type of people they are, by the end though the pages are turning fast thanks to the drama poured into the writing. The writing also gives the reader a sense of urgency which keeps everything flowing.
It is really difficult to say much without giving anything away but boy does the author know how to twist things around that leave you speechless, expect the unexpected in this gritty and compelling read. The way the story plays out among the wildfires heightens the tension and doesn’t let you stop and take a breath. A game of cat and mouse where the stakes are high
Overall, this was read which drew me in with its premise of what was to follow, which piqued my interest by the end I was applauding the author for the way he was able grab hold of me, and to stop and take stock of what I was reading, the plot poses many questions and challenges what you know
This is a book which deserves to widely read, pick it up you won’t be disappointed. An author I will be looking out for.
March 13, 2025
Thank you to Datura Books for sending me a copy of this novel. Here are my thoughts!
Dash Fuller is giving up his rough past of making Hollywood’s most famous’ secrets disappear and he’s going to become a stand-up comedian. That is until Madeline shows up, her father went missing 20 years ago and his skeleton was recently discovered. Madeline wants Dash to figure out what happened.
I was immediately drawn in by the character, Dash. He was blunt and had this coolness about him that made me want to learn more. His backstory was intriguing, and I loved that he went from like a fixer to a stand-up comedian (a poor one at that). Madeline was his complete opposite. The two balanced each other out very nicely and once they started working together, I was even more drawn into the story.
The novel continued as your usual crime thriller but then BAM, twist after twist after twist. I didn’t expect any of them so was completely shocked. I basically finished the last third of the book in one go just to see what happens. It was very challenging to put it down. I would love if more books were added about Dash, I think there is so much expansion in Hollywood as well as his backstory.
I can’t recommend this one enough and I highly recommend it if you are into crime fiction and thrillers!
Dash Fuller is giving up his rough past of making Hollywood’s most famous’ secrets disappear and he’s going to become a stand-up comedian. That is until Madeline shows up, her father went missing 20 years ago and his skeleton was recently discovered. Madeline wants Dash to figure out what happened.
I was immediately drawn in by the character, Dash. He was blunt and had this coolness about him that made me want to learn more. His backstory was intriguing, and I loved that he went from like a fixer to a stand-up comedian (a poor one at that). Madeline was his complete opposite. The two balanced each other out very nicely and once they started working together, I was even more drawn into the story.
The novel continued as your usual crime thriller but then BAM, twist after twist after twist. I didn’t expect any of them so was completely shocked. I basically finished the last third of the book in one go just to see what happens. It was very challenging to put it down. I would love if more books were added about Dash, I think there is so much expansion in Hollywood as well as his backstory.
I can’t recommend this one enough and I highly recommend it if you are into crime fiction and thrillers!
March 3, 2025
Nick Kolakowski's "Where the Bones Lie" reads like a stand-up comedian is telling you a joke that turns into one of the best darkly humorous thrillers you've ever read! I mean this literally. The book's not simply fast-paced, atmospheric, intricately plotted, and full of pop culture references - it's also quite original in its selection of the main character: a former LA fixer turned stand-up comedian! I rarely read crime fiction, but I finished this one in a couple of sittings, devouring the book to find out where the whole thing was going; it's so smartly written, with fully fleshed out and solid characters, the more I read the more I was feeling sure I would not be disappointed. Indeed, the book delivers, and it in fact goes places I never suspected it would (climate change), developping an offbeat sort of detective mystery story which I can easily see myself binging if it were a TV series, or a blockbuster movie on the big screen. The book begs for it, and a well done series would certainly fit the plot's moral ambiguity and the cinematic writing style of the author. Highly recommended!
March 9, 2025
This book will be published on 11 March 2025
It's a gripping murder mystery laced with witty humour by a seasoned criminal expert, who's expertise in making crime disappeared makes investigators ashamed.
Madeline Ironwood is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler and murderer who disappeared 20 years ago. Ken’s skeleton has just been discovered in a barrel at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and Madeline wants to know who killed him.
Dash agrees to help, and as this desperate daughter and jaded cynic claw their way through a world of sun-bleached secrets, crooked cops, and Hollywood thugs, they soon uncover a conspiracy involving some of LA’s most powerful people.
It's a second cosy mystery that I enjoyed this year. This book is excellent twisted filled with funny banter, atmospheric and moderately paced.
If you want to read mystery novel but a little lighter tone and less psychological tension, then go for this book, it's worth reading in a lazy weekend.
Rating - 4/5
Thank you @daturabooks and @nickkolakowski for this beautiful Arc copy
+1 point for this beautiful cover.
It's a gripping murder mystery laced with witty humour by a seasoned criminal expert, who's expertise in making crime disappeared makes investigators ashamed.
Madeline Ironwood is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler and murderer who disappeared 20 years ago. Ken’s skeleton has just been discovered in a barrel at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and Madeline wants to know who killed him.
Dash agrees to help, and as this desperate daughter and jaded cynic claw their way through a world of sun-bleached secrets, crooked cops, and Hollywood thugs, they soon uncover a conspiracy involving some of LA’s most powerful people.
It's a second cosy mystery that I enjoyed this year. This book is excellent twisted filled with funny banter, atmospheric and moderately paced.
If you want to read mystery novel but a little lighter tone and less psychological tension, then go for this book, it's worth reading in a lazy weekend.
Rating - 4/5
Thank you @daturabooks and @nickkolakowski for this beautiful Arc copy
+1 point for this beautiful cover.
March 11, 2025
*Rated 4.25 on review sites that allow it*
While I never would have read this book if I didn’t think I’d like it, I was surprised by how much I did.
Nick Kolakowski makes the private eye crime novel feel fresh with Dash, a sort of Hollywood fixer, working for movie studios to make the crimes (some of which were absolutely abhorrent) and indiscretions of various actors go away. I found this extremely interesting, especially when Dash, used to covering things up for the Hollywood elite, finds himself in the middle of someone else’s cover-up when he agrees to help Madeline find out what happened to her father.
I thought Dash would primarily work alone but I was pleasantly surprised when Madeline tagged along and kicked ass right by his side. They had some fun banter that I was happy didn’t lean towards romantic. They just had a nice friendship and I enjoyed its growth from strangers to partners in crime. Also: Madeline is a badass.
The story was really great, there’s a lot of action and some fun twists and turns along the way. I was able to predict a part but I always hesitate to call a twist or turn predictable because who knows what anyone else will be able to figure out ahead of time? I’m someone who likes to guess and is constantly trying to figure it out and then give myself a pat on the back if I’m right so I loved it, personally, and I think it was an excellent angle.
I definitely recommend this one to anyone interested in a dark, action-packed, and suspenseful mystery that you won’t want to put down.
Thank you to Nick Kolakowski for sending me an ARC of Where the Bones Lie!
While I never would have read this book if I didn’t think I’d like it, I was surprised by how much I did.
Nick Kolakowski makes the private eye crime novel feel fresh with Dash, a sort of Hollywood fixer, working for movie studios to make the crimes (some of which were absolutely abhorrent) and indiscretions of various actors go away. I found this extremely interesting, especially when Dash, used to covering things up for the Hollywood elite, finds himself in the middle of someone else’s cover-up when he agrees to help Madeline find out what happened to her father.
I thought Dash would primarily work alone but I was pleasantly surprised when Madeline tagged along and kicked ass right by his side. They had some fun banter that I was happy didn’t lean towards romantic. They just had a nice friendship and I enjoyed its growth from strangers to partners in crime. Also: Madeline is a badass.
The story was really great, there’s a lot of action and some fun twists and turns along the way. I was able to predict a part but I always hesitate to call a twist or turn predictable because who knows what anyone else will be able to figure out ahead of time? I’m someone who likes to guess and is constantly trying to figure it out and then give myself a pat on the back if I’m right so I loved it, personally, and I think it was an excellent angle.
I definitely recommend this one to anyone interested in a dark, action-packed, and suspenseful mystery that you won’t want to put down.
Thank you to Nick Kolakowski for sending me an ARC of Where the Bones Lie!
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