GUMSHOE IN THE DARK

4 stars out of 5

This is the fifth in the author's "Gumshoe" series, and my first; it stands alone quite well, in part because a fair amount of page time is devoted to reminisces, I guess you'd say, of events I assume took place in previous installments that gave me some idea of what went on before.

In this one, what's going on is plenty. Former IRS agent Mortimer Angel, now training to become a fully licensed private detective in Nevada, has set out to find a wayward young man who has become, unbeknownst to him, heir to a small fortune. On the road to find him and many miles from anything close to civilization, he can't resist stopping to help the beautiful Harper Leland, who's scantily clad and stranded in the rain. When she tries to hijack his truck, Mort quickly snips off a valve on one of the tires - effectively bringing her to a stop. When they learn the spare tire is flat as well, they have to get creative to get going or else spend the night on a lonely stretch of road.

Realizing that they may be being followed, Mort concludes that Harper may be central to some of the suspicious things that seen to be happening to them (although she denies it). Amid all this, the state attorney general has gone missing and two teenagers have been murdered - with no connection that anyone has found. Mort stays on track to humor Harper and keep looking for the soon-to-be-rich kid while his mentor Maude Clary, an older woman who rules the office with an iron mouth, warns Mort over and over that if he finds another dead body (or any parts thereof), he's fired.

Despite all of Mort's efforts, of course, he and Harper find mayhem and mayhem returns the favor - resulting in Mort's wife Lucy, who's got serious chops of her own in a number of areas (and inexplicably, more than willing to join in with the getting-naked jibes) meeting up with them. All three get stuck in some impossibly dangerous situations covered with plenty of blood and gore and only Mort's aforementioned creativity - combined with a few almost unbelievable contortions by Lucy - can hope to save them. Can they find out what's really going on before at least one of them bites the dust? I'll never tell, so if you want to find out, you'll just have to read the book (just for the record, I always advise starting at the beginning with any series, but you won't be disappointed if you opt for this one). 

Although I enjoyed this book overall, I must mention that after the first couple of chapters I grew weary of the unrelenting risque repartee between Mort and Harper. Yes, he's a healthy male and she's wearing dripping wet next to nothings, but he's also married, in his mid-40s and she's a five-year schoolteacher - both well beyond the years when bathroom banter is age-appropriate, at least in my mind. For a while, it was sort of amusing; but when it was still outdoing the Energizer Bunny at the 25% mark, I literally said to myself, "Okay - I'll give it one more chapter and if it doesn't stop, I will." Since you're reading this, it did - at least enough that I could find an actual plot to follow that was both interesting and intriguing. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Gumshoe in the Dark by Rob Leininger (Oceanview Publishing, June 2021); 385 pp.