Fireball

by Jimmy Sangster

This is the long-lost, never-before-published fourth book in Jimmy Sangster's wickedly inventive, darkly funny, and critically acclaimed "James Reed" series of crime novels. Ex-cop James Reed is a self-styled beach bum, living in the Malibu house he scored in the divorce settlement from his brief marriage to a famous actress. Life should be easy...but he has terrible luck. His first date with a woman he meets on a tennis court goes very, very bad, getting him beaten, accused of murder, and pursued by killers. And that's just in one night. Now he's trapped in nightmare of sex, blackmail and murder...and to get out, he must go to New York...and worm his way into the rotten core of the Big Apple.  Praise for the James Reed "Crammed full of sex, drugs and Hollywood. This book is a bright evocation of La-La-Land. Welcome Mr. Reed. Come back soon." Hartford Courant "Adept plotting and achingly human characters." Booklist "An unusually shaped plot and vivid characters." Kirkus Reviews "Excellently plotted and paced. Sangster constructs an intricate problem and lets his intelligent, complex hero loose to solve it." Publishers Weekly "Read a couple of these James Reed novels and author Jimmy Sangster could get to be a habit." Anniston Star "This is a fast-moving, funny, sexy -- very sexy -- story. James Reed is a very charming character." The Orlando Sentinel

200 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 3, 2020

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fireball is the fourth novel in Sangster’s James Reed sorta-private eye series. Unlike the first three in the series, this one was not published in Sangster’s lifetime. The James Reed series is a tribute to earlier PI series. It’s set in sunny Southern California and ex London police detective James Reed survived a brief marriage to Hollywood’s latest It-girl and inherited her Malibu beach home in the divorce settlement. Without much to do other than drink and walk on the beach, trouble has a way of finding Reed, usually starting with woman trouble and often expanding into gangster trouble.

Here, through no fault of his own, Reed stumbles into a crime scheme that’s really none of his business and ends up taxi-ing around NYC in search of the truth. Like many other PI stories, you are never really sure why Reed is pursuing this and what he expects to get out of it. Or where it all leads in the end. But, it’s a fun, quick read and it’s best to just enjoy the ride.

[Allen Pasternak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lee Goldberg deserves our gratitude and appreciation for finding, then publishing the lost manuscript of Ralph Dennis’ thirteenth Hardman novel and the fourth James Reed novel by Jimmy Sangster. Both books are outstanding, and Fireball is truly a classic and one of the great novels of the genre.

James Reed is a beach bum, but this is, basically a private eye novel. Sangster’s character owes much to Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. Both are ethical men with a sense of loyalty. One can’t help but respect them.

Reed gets swept up by romantic intent with a woman he meets at a tennis club, but, before long, the woman is murdered. He gets launched on a search for the killer and evidence of blackmail. There’s a trip to New York and confrontations with some unsavory characters. You’ll be thankful for your meeting with Reed, someone who’s very pleasurable to know.

I can’t wait for the next lost manuscript Brash Books turns up. These aren’t throwaway novels but are the equals of the series that preceded them.

[Greg Trosclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad to read the last of the James Reed books. Sangster was a better writer of books than movies in my opinion albeit I love his movies too.