Frame Up

by James Phoenix

The death in 2010 of Robert B. Parker, the Dean of American Crime Fiction, left a giant void in the hard-boiled detective mystery genre built by luminaries like Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler, and Ross MacDonald. James Phoenix continues the tradition of the tough, wisecracking, private detective with Frame Up, the first in the Fenway Burke Mystery Series.Fans of Robert Parker now have a new, street-smart Boston private eye with the Christian name of “Fenway,” who covers the same turf as Spencer, but whose home base is a rusting, steel-hulled, fifty-eight foot boat moored in Marblehead harbor about 10 miles north of Boston. Fenway Burke is cast by Phoenix in the same blunt, masculine, first person style of so many great, hardboiled detective novels. The memorable characters in Frame Up include a hulk of a man named Tiny, who runs Boston’s largest bookie operation; a white-bearded lobsterman named Wiff, a fixture in Maddie’s Bar on Front Street in Marblehead; and Fenway’s love interest, Megan Griffin, a six-foot tall, statuesque Boston public defender. The action is fast, the characters are memorable, and the unexpected is to be expected in this brilliantly conceived crime series that adds a new contender in the pantheon of great private eyes.

281 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2012

About the author

James Phoenix spent his literary apprenticeship as a student, a dishwasher, a waiter, a factory hand, a construction worker, a weightlifter, a bouncer, a lobste-rman, a salesman and a successful hi-tech entrepreneur. Originally from Boston’s North Shore, he and his wife Susan now split their time between South-Coastal Maine and the US Virgin islands. This is his first novel.

Reviews

[Paul Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Phoenix has written a fun and exciting read. Difficult to put down once your a couple of chapters in. Lots of moving parts. Of course the appropriate amount of suspense and romance. Worth the read.