Gumshoe

Mortimer Angel #1

by Rob Leininger

USA Today best-selling author IRS agent, feared and despised—a gumshoe for only four hours—finds Reno's missing mayor's head For nine long days, the mayor and district attorney of Reno, Nevada, have been missing. Vanished without a trace. Their vehicles were found parked side-by-side at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Did they fly somewhere together? They aren't on any flight manifest. Did the two of them take off with a big pile of the city's money? If so, the city accountants can't find it. Were they murdered? There's no sign of foul play. Their disappearances have finally made national news. Enter Mortimer Angel, who'd just quit a thankless job as an IRS agent. Mort is Reno's newest gumshoe, a private-eye-in-training at his nephew's detective agency. Just four hours into his new career, Mort finds the mayor—make that, the mayor's head—in the trunk of Mort's ex-wife's Mercedes. The news-hungry media Did Mort kill the mayor? Did Mort's ex? As events begin to spin out of control, Mort realizes things have been out of control since the night before he started his new career, the night he found the unknown naked blonde in his bed."Mortimer Angel is my new favorite Private Eye." —John Lescroart, New York Times best-selling author While all of the novels in the Mortimer Angel Gumshoe Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence Gumshoe for Two Gumshoe on the Loose Gumshoe Rock Gumshoe in the Dark

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Humor, Thriller, Detective

386 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 21, 2014

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. The plot centers around Mort Angel, who gives up a good paying job as an IRS agent because a) It is boring and b) he didn't like "grim silences at parties" when he said he was an IRS agent. The idea that someone would give up a job paying $60,000 a year because strangers disapproved is ludicrous.

So now Mort is working as a private eye, making $80 per day(about a third of previous job) and trying to find a serial killer. His first employer is murdered and he is now working for a woman private eye, a strong, determined woman and one of the best parts of the book.
I find Mort's character not very realistic. I give this book 2 stars out of 5.

[Meredith (Trying to catch up!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Former IRS agent and Private Investigator in Training, Mort Angel, is having an eventful first day on the job. He discovers the head of Reno's mayor's in the trunk of his ex-wife's car. The mayor also happens to be his ex-wife's boyfriend. In the eight days following his gruesome discovery, Mort finds two more decapitated heads. Mort must to learn quickly on the job to solve the mystery of who is committing these crimes.

Gumshoe is fun read. Mort grew on me, and I loved all the winks and nods to PI boiler fiction. Warning: it gets a little gory towards the end.

I won this book from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Mort Angel leaves his long term job at the IRS to take up a private investigator position at his nephew's firm. The mayor and district attorney of Reno have both disappeared and there is no trace of either of them, they have now been missing for ten and eight days respectively. Mort's ex wife Dallas with whom he is still on good terms with, has been going out with the mayor. She calls Mort on his first day of his new job when she has a flat tyre and asks for his help. Mort arrives and opens the boot of the car to get the car jack out but instead he and Dallas are totally thrown as they find the head of the mayor with no body attached, so the games begin. Mort and Dallas are now prime suspects and then when the district attorney is found in the same manner they are further drawn into the case. Mort then takes the case to his nephew to investigate and once his nephew starts to investigate he is also found dead. This is an engaging thriller with a lot of humor thrown in. I read this in two sittings and was totally engaged in the story throughout. Highly recommended.

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cracking, fast paced, and quirky thriller. Mort Angel, I love the name, is 41 and has just changed his job because he was bored. Well, not to worry as he is about to find himself almost immediately in the middle of a firestorm. And a strange blonde is in his bed!

Mort has just begun working as a private eye in Reno, Nevada. The District Attorney and Mayor have gone missing. To Mort's horror, he discovers the Mayor's head in the boot of the car of his ex wife, Dallas. This is not good as it is not the only head he comes across. Who is behind these acts of evil?

This is an impeccably plotted tale with superb characterisation. Mort is an eye catching central character with bags of personality. The story is infused with comic moments, humour and brimful of twists and turns. An entertaining and gobsmacking thrill of a ride. Many thanks to Oceanview, the publishers for a copy of the book via netgalley.

[Elite Group · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gumshoe by Rob Leininger
4 out of 5 stars
A very humorous and fast-paced thriller

Mortimer Angel – Mort to his friends – has been an IRS agent for some sixteen years and the time has come to end the interminable boredom of this job and start his career anew. And so he commences a new job as a Private Detective working for his nephew’s firm in Reno, Nevada.

Mort is already in the public eye because the mayor and district attorney of Reno, Jonnie Sjorgen and Dave Milliken respectively, have both gone missing without trace. Mort’s connection with this is that his ex-wife, Dallas, with whom Mort is still on very good terms, was in a relationship with Jonnie. Therefore, she, and by extension, Mort, are suspects in the eyes of the media and the public – and perhaps, the police.

Things go from bad to worse for Mort when, four hours into his new career, he finds Jonnie. Or at least, he finds his head in the boot of Dallas’s Mercedes! Mort thinks things cannot get worse, but of course they do.

Rob Leininger has written a very fast-paced and humorous thriller, and I loved the tongue-in-cheek nose-thumbing to conventional political correctness. His characters are all slightly larger-than-life, but nonetheless very believable. Mort gets more than his fair share of damsels in distress and the climax of the plot is stunning in its intensity.

I thoroughly recommend this book.
Sméagol

Breakaway Reviewers were given an advanced copy of the book

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mortimer Angel ("Mort, call me Mort.") comes from a long line of boring people. Generation after generation of book keepers, accountants, bankers, and the like. So, after sixteen years working for the IRS, he's ready to break the mold and try something more exciting. He takes an apprentice position at an investigative firm even though, by his own admission, he has trouble finding his hand in his own pocket.

Being a private eye isn't quite what he expected... at least not at first. Then everything changes: A mystery woman shows up in his bed, he discovers the dismembered head of Reno, Nevada's missing mayor in the trunk of his ex-wife's car, and he somehow becomes the object of a media frenzy. Life is no longer dull for Mortimer Angel! (Sorry, I mean Mort Angel).

Gumshoe by Rob Leininger starts out a little slow. Once it picks up it keeps a fairly decent pace until towards the end (which I thought was a bit drawn out). It starts out as almost farcical. The inexperienced detective cluelessly bumbling his way through a case with little to no idea of what he's doing. As the plot unfolds it takes a decidedly darker turn. It makes the overall story a little uneven but not in an unredeemable way.

I liked the character of Mort. The author still has a few rough edges to polish but overall Mort is the kind of good natured, smart alecky guy you would expect to find in a light-hearted detective novel (As I'm terrible at defining subgenre I refer to these kind of stories as softboiled - Harder than a cozy but not really in the realm of hardboiled). It's when the story takes on a darker tone (towards the end) that the character really seems to be lost in the wrong book.

Gumshoe won't be to everyone's taste but I found it to be, for the most part, a fun, enjoyable read. I liked it enough that I have already obtained a copy of the second book in the Mort Angel series "Gumshoe for Two".

This book has violence, some strong language, and sexually suggestive content. None of it is presented in a particularly graphic way but it might tend to offend sensitive readers.

*** Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this novel.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I took too long to read this one because I thought it started strong and then started to lose my interest.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mort is just over the big 4 0. He decides to quit his job and become a PI. I am ok with that but I would have thought that he at least would have tried to get a license for it first. The man is obviously not stupid in the book - being an accountant - and an IRS agent - attention to details like this should have been right up there.

I feel that this had to be a tongue-in-cheek PI story but the clichés started to get to me. The man is 40 years old and he has all these beautiful women falling all over themselves to get to him? some half his age?

The reason this didn't get a two was because it had a very fast paced ending and the writing style was easy to read and the dialog was ok. There were just a few too many references to him being a PI and the life of a PI is so much more interesting (strange women in his bed) than the life of an IRS agent. I did like that he seemed to try to bring his considerable hunting skills (diligence, observation etc) from his previous job to this one.

[Delta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this mystery. It has a great balance of humor and mystery with quite a bit of gore thrown in. It has several high points which is pretty unusual for most of the books I read in the genre, but the multiple highs made it easy for me to keep reading.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

[PopcornReads - MkNoah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our third review is Gumshoe by Rob Leininger. It’s Book #1 in a new quirky detective series. If you like hardboiled detective novels, you’ve come to the right place. Mr. Leininger has taken the classic detective novel and put a very original spin on it. I fully expect Gumshoe to get optioned by a major film studio, like two of Mr. Leininger’s prior novels, because it’s got motion picture written all over it. I loved every minute of it and I think you’ll find it a fun, quirky read while being a roller-coaster thriller at the same time – and that, amazingly enough, works beautifully. The humor helps to keep the creepier aspects of the storyline in check, providing a balance that kept me glued to Gumshoe until I finished it. Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=8786

[Laurie P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Former IRS agent turned Private Investigator, Mort Angel, is having a stimulating week. His ex-wife's fiance, who happens to be the mayor of Reno, goes missing at the same time as the city's D.A. Heads start to roll. Literally. Next, Mort comes home to a stranger passed out in his bed, a woman he has never seen before, who has disappeared by the time he rolls off the couch in the morning. Then things get really interesting.

This fast-paced mystery puts the pedal to the metal and never lets up. If you like a quick moving story with great characters, lots of suspects, and tons of twists and turns, this one's for you.

[Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the character of Mort Angel, ex-IRS auditor and now an aspiring PI in Reno. I also liked the sense of humor and the quirkiness of the tale.

However, I did not like the thrilleresque, let's wrap it up ending...over the top and did not fit with what preceded.

[Tulay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, but gruesome.

Spoiler alert. Rape of fourteen years old girl, at birth didn't get enough oxygen. All grown up but has mentally four years old. Rich fathers cowered up, but one kept on raping even his daughter and grand daughter. Gruesome murders.

[Lori Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun!

This was a great read. The main character, Mort is a person that I would like to meet in real life. His decision to leave the IRS and become a private eye makes for some interesting twists and turns in the story. I'm definitely reading the second book in the series.

[Zeb Kantrowitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book starts out with out friend just having left the IRS after 13 years and decided to become a PI. He is going to go to work for his nephew who will teach him the ropes. While working on his first job Mort finds that he is not really experience enough to do this job. It turns out that the Mayor of Reno and the Attorney General have been kidnapped and the Mayor is the paramour of his ex-wife Dallas.

He goes to see Dallas and when she gets a flat tire, they find the head of the Mayor in her trunk. After dealing with the police, Mort then finds the head of the DA. It's seems to be more than he can handle. When he goes to see his nephew, he finds his head. This becoming a real problem for Mort who decides he needs to hire a PI to help him find out what's going on.

After finding a PI in the phone book he goes to meet with her. She's 5'3" and a judo expert, and she agrees to help him. This is when the books takes a turn from Camp to incredulity. The first night he goes home he finds a woman in his be wearing only panties. She of course has a great body but he can't seem to wake her up. He has no clue who she is.

During the next 100 pages he is placed in the same position of being taken on by two or three other woman in their underwear, communal showers and sex. It has the appearance of a written teenage wet dream. On top of everything else he ends up in a sadomasachist murder cult. Please find me something better to read.

[Burt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rob Leininger has earned some praise for the mystery novels that he’s published. So, I was very excited to see that my local library had a copy of 2015’s Gumshoe. Unfortunately, I walked away disappointed and recommend that potential readers avoid this one.

Gumshoe has a cartoonish quality. The action is fast and the book is filled with sexy women who are all after the marginally-employed Mort Angel. The plot is convoluted. Mort stumbles into a decades-old series of crimes that occurred in Reno, Nevada. Of course, the chickens come home to roost in the present. (This is the basic plot that Ross Macdonald used so well in all of his Lew Archer novels).

Lots of problems create an unsatisfying read. Gumshoe is far too long at almost 400 pages. Angel is sometimes a pompous jerk - he hits all of the cliches of the private eye genre. When Leininger sets a scene he has the tendency to give you all sort of extraneous details, which causes the reader to want him to just get on with it. Last, while the plot and characters seem tailor made to hook the reader, they just don’t get the job done.

[Randal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved it up until the big ending. I liked the lead character. I liked that he was fumbling into a new life, not a borderline superhero; I liked the pace, most of the dialogue, and the cast of characters.

In all fairness I should have seen it coming ... the back jacket blurb talks about a "dark turn" or similar phrase, and the fictional PI does describe his admiration for Mickey Spillane a couple of times.

Buuuuuut ... for most of the book this is more Carl Hiassen (set in Reno, Nevada, instead of Florida) than Spillane. So when it flips from a happy-to-get-along, self-deprecating former IRS auditor learning the ropes as a detective to a naked torture-dungeon fight scene all of a sudden, it's jarring. And my capacity for naked torture-dungeon fight scenes faded a long, long time ago.

Plus making the perpetrator bat-shit crazy to make all the plot holes go away is essentially a cheat code.

So four stars up until the last few chapters, two overall. Probably recommended for fans of Spillane, if I knew any.

[Ken Finlay · Rating 4 out of 5]

IRS agent Mortimer 'Mort' Angel, 41, resigned from his job and is due to start working for his nephew as a trainee P.I. in Reno, Nevada.
Life has been pretty bland until now, but that's about to change.
He knows his Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler so he isn't the least surprised when he's chatted up by a gorgeous hooker, Holiday Breeze, in his local bar.
He's hardly a day in the job when his ex-wife, Dallas, hires him to investigate the disappearance of her fiancée, Reno's Mayor. He's been AWOL for over a week along with the D.A.
And find him Mort does, or rather his head (in the boot of Dallas' car).
It's only the first of several several body parts for Mort!
“Gumshoe” is offbeat and, initially, I found it hard going but the more it progressed the better it got.
It draws heavily on noir and depends in no small way on Morts' complete inability to understand women – his internal musings on the subject can be hilarious. He knows he isn't a real P.I. but the world treats him as if he is – dames and danger abound.
I really enjoyed reading it.
4 Stars.

[Madelon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mortimer Angel is no longer a gun-toting IRS agent; he's a gun-toting PI-in-training, in Reno, Nevada. He sees himself through the noir lens of Sam Spade or, maybe, Mike Hammer, but when the excrement hits the spinning blades his self-image as the 'Great Gumshoe' sometimes falters.

Seldom have I read a better first novel in a series. The transition from IRS agent to PI is not easy, but grit and determination go a long way toward achieving a goal. Finding beautiful women, under odd circumstances, along the way provides incentive to our 'Great Gumshoe' in training. This is a grisly tale of murder with an ending that will set your hair on fire.

There are few places in the book where you might willingly set it aside. No, you'll read until your eyes bleed as you turn another page.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book I’ve read in this series. After enjoying book 3 - Gumshoe on the Loose - I picked up Gumshoe to find out how Mort Angel went from being a career IRS agent to a Private Eye.

The story was entertaining, with a very convoluted mystery to uncover. The ending was a little graphic for my tastes and went on a little long, but I enjoyed the story, especially Mort’s interactions with the sudden influx of hot women in his life.

I’m looking forward to the next installment in this series.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very amusing, if somewhat graphic mystery. Mort Angel gives up her boring career as an IRS agent, dreaded by all. The day he decides to become a PI, the women take notice and he finds himself in a Mike Hammer novel, beautiful woman falling for him wherever he goes. Along with that issue, he also has a propensity for finding heads. Not the bodies, just the heads. This is an entertaining new series start.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

i wasn't sure what to expect w/this one. I just picked it up b/c it seemed different.
it was.

i loved it!!!

mort angel is awesome.

it was clever & witty. i chortled out loud several times.
i liked all the characters: mort, ma, and jeri.
also the story was intriguing & it kept me interested.

[Ginny Varney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read another "Gumshoe" novel not realizing it was part of a series. So I got "Gumshoe" #1 to read the series in order. I won't be reading any more of this series. What is it with all the naked women falling into his bed? Any their perky breasts? While I enjoyed the character of Mort Angel I just can't keep shaking my head.

[BonusMom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book

Loved this book. It had lots of action and loads of humor. The characters were well developed and likeable. The PI in this book was not a drunk with a mixed up past. YAY! The story flowed well with a great ending.

[Nancy K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy Read

A slow start, but got better as the story progressed. I could have done without all the descriptions of what each character wore, except when it told something about that characters personality.

Relatively few typos and only one POV switch that I noticed.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mortimer Angel gives up his career as an IRS agent to become a PI in Reno.
Wants to be Mike Hammer.
Pretty funny. Made me laugh(but I'm pretty easy)
Ending is violent. Not very subtle but I enjoyed it.
I'll read #2

[Kip Gire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so great...I was looking for a mickey spillane homage per the reviews, but this is not a very good book.. the ending is so drawn out, the Geri character is so unbelievable its laughable.. just skip this

[Wpayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gumshoe

Wow. Took me a bit to get going on this one but then I couldn't put it down. Really liked old Mort and laughed out loud a lot. Got pretty gruesome there at the last tho and had to speed read over some of it.

[Nadine Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have to read this book!

. I have to thank you Rob for such a great story. . You've made fan. Terrific characters. Humor and mystery. I started with the 5th in the series and then bought the rest. I'm going to get anything with your name on it.

[Diana Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

score several for Mort and his all girl crew

I liked it because it was funny, even though really revolting. Hard to believe the ex could stay an ex. Wonder what Jeri and Mortimer got into after the shower?