A GAMBLING MAN

5 stars out of 5

Generally speaking, I'm not fond of "period" stories; when I do tackle them, they're more often set in the future than the past. This series is an exception - and a wonderful one at that. I loved would-be private eye Aloysius Archer from the git-go (which was in the first book of the series, One Good Deed), and I love him here as well. 

The period is in the late '40s, when Archer (he tends to avoid mentioning his given name) has just been released from jail for a crime he insists he didn't commit and is headed for California to look for private investigator Willie Dash, under whose tutelage he hopes to learn the ropes and carve out a new and potentially rewarding career for himself. As a World War II vet, he's seen plenty of action, so he figures he can withstand a little danger here and there.

He makes a pitstop in Reno, where he lands some money and a rare bright red 1939 Delahaye convertible (note: Google this car - you gotta see this baby to believe it). Archer also meets up with feisty actress wannabe named Liberty Callahan, who, as luck would have it, is headed to California as well and joins him for the last leg of the journey. A few experiences later, they land in Bay Town, overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean; here, Archer finds his mentor and Liberty finds a decent job as a singer/dancer at a local saloon to tide her over till she moves on to the Hollywood scene.

Willie is happy with Archer, but with the town, not so much. It's run, for the most part, by a filthy rich family, and the son-in-law of the head honcho is running for mayor against a local dentist. But the family guy is a blackmail target - accused of bedding one of the "girls" from the saloon. He denies the allegations, of course, and has hired Willie to get to the bottom of things. Willie, in turn, puts Archer on the case; when the saloon woman turns up murdered, things start to heat up and the bad guys start packing heat. It doesn't take long, though, for Archer to discover not only that there's much more at stake here than a mayoral race, but that some people will take extreme measures to bring his investigation efforts to a halt.

The rest of the story is riddled with bullets, dead bodies and wrongdoing of all kinds, but it all gets sorted out in the end thanks mostly to Archer. It's a great follow-up to the first one, and I hope the author wastes no time coming up with the third. Well done!

A Gambling Man by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, April 2021); 375 pp.