( Format : Audiobook )
"You're awful cute when you try to play rough."
A comedic thriller detective story with frantic action.
Scott Jarvis, ex cop, is now both P.I. and best selling author, writing with a conversational style direct to his audience in an almost stream of consciousness 'tell it as it happens when it does' approach, rather than a more structured format. And, being written in the first person, from Scott's perspective, with a brief inclusion by Lisa, his girlfriend, this gives an immediacy to the action as well as a better insight into Scott's thinking. His style is flippant, sarcastic, opinionated (and usually right) and, at times, frankly annoying: he's someone I would not want to know in real life. Yet his approach seems to both charm and surprise those he meets and most of the book's protagonists respond favourably to his wit and frequent double entendres, and light hearted comparisons with Sherlock Holmes without a Watson to write up his adventures for him. He scoffs at danger...
There is a lot of scoffing going on. I'll repeat that, for emphasis: there is an awful lot of 'scoffing' in this book.
Jarvis, with girlfriend Lisa and younger sister, Lauren, set off in what was to be a two week holiday of lazing in the sun on his sailing boat, but very soon encounter a mystery, an apparently recently abandoned 'ghost' ship, curiously named the Celeste. The holiday shudders to a halt as Jarvis and company are drawn into a bizarre tale of kidnap, murder and Mafia. It's convoluted and crazy and pretty good listening. Much of this is down to the narration by Lee Strayer, who gives a good performance as the wise talking author P.I., voice replete with good humored banter and sarcasm, very pleasant on the ear, paced well and well intoned. His individual voicing of the separate characters is also well executed, keeping everyone distinct.
(As an added bonus, a lengthy chapter from another book by the author, Scott Cook, is included. Different genre, this time it is zombies, and entitled, appropriately, World of Corpses.)
My thanks to the rights holder of Isle of Bones, who, at my request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy. It was an enjoyable romp, not heavy despite the somewhat unsavoury story line , and with numerous characters to add to the colour. I would definitely read another in this series and recommended this book to all who enjoy the more flippant action filled detective story genre.