I reviewed the author’s first mystery and found it a fresh take on the genre with much wry humor. The current one is a welcome follow up. It has one of those incredibly complex plots that had me scratching my head, and a large cast of supporting characters that I had to make notes to keep track of. The main character is Jake Martin, a divorced, unemployed software engineer and writer who is down on his luck, chronically short of money, drives an old car, and lives in a cabin in Colorado with a dog named Fred. Fred is amazing, but more about him later.
Attempting to summarize the tangled plot would be like trying to describe the human circulatory system in a few sentences. In a nutshell’s nutshell, it goes something like this: a gas barbeque explodes, a man is injured, blame is placed on Jake, and legal action threatened. As Jake seeks to prove his innocence, Fred provides exonerating evidence of propane tank tempering. In a subplot, a sexy wildlife agent takes interest in Jake and romance blossoms.
Other story elements include an attempted murder by improbable means that would ruin anyone’s afternoon cocktail and barbecue hour, a book editing job on a work of fiction that may actually be a memoir describing a murder, a very clever squirrrel, a parade of shady characters, surprise paternity, insurance fraud, a meth lab, and a tragedy.
Back to Fred, who, if he is not always at center stage, is close by, drawing attention. He plays a variety of roles and, at times, seems to be the jokester to Jake’s straight man. He performs as icebreaker, cluefinder. comic relief, best friend, tracker, protector, early warning system, heating pad, object of love and concern, mood raiser.
I enjoyed this novel and recommend it to readers.
I reviewed the author’s first mystery and found it a fresh take on the genre with much wry humor. The current one is a welcome follow up. It has one of those incredibly complex plots that had me scratching my head, and a large cast of supporting characters that I had to make notes to keep track of. The main character is Jake Martin, a divorced, unemployed software engineer and writer who is down on his luck, chronically short of money, drives an old car, and lives in a cabin in Colorado with a dog named Fred. Fred is amazing, but more about him later.
Attempting to summarize the tangled plot would be like trying to describe the human circulatory system in a few sentences. In a nutshell’s nutshell, it goes something like this: a gas barbeque explodes, a man is injured, blame is placed on Jake, and legal action threatened. As Jake seeks to prove his innocence, Fred provides exonerating evidence of propane tank tempering. In a subplot, a sexy wildlife agent takes interest in Jake and romance blossoms.
Other story elements include an attempted murder by improbable means that would ruin anyone’s afternoon cocktail and barbecue hour, a book editing job on a work of fiction that may actually be a memoir describing a murder, a very clever squirrrel, a parade of shady characters, surprise paternity, insurance fraud, a meth lab, and a tragedy.
Back to Fred, who, if he is not always at center stage, is close by, drawing attention. He plays a variety of roles and, at times, seems to be the jokester to Jake’s straight man. He performs as icebreaker, cluefinder. comic relief, best friend, tracker, protector, early warning system, heating pad, object of love and concern, mood raiser.
I enjoyed this novel and recommend it to readers.