Hello, bloggers! It’s been awhile since my last review, so here’s a new one for the fifth book in the Henry Swann series, which was just as good as the previous books.
When skip tracer Henry Swann is asked by his partner, Goldblatt, to track down a psychic who apparently swindled his ex-wife out of a small fortune, he sees it all as an opportunity not only to possibly get the money back, but to finally learn more about his annoying partner’s mysterious past.
Around that same time, Swann is approached by a former employer to find a missing witness who might be able to provide an alibi for his client, a notorious mobster who is to stand trial within a week for a murder he claims he didn’t commit. The witness just happens to be the defendant’s girlfriend. With two missing persons assignments, Swann searches from Brooklyn to a small beach town across Mobile, Alabama, to get answers from this woman. If she’s willing to go back to New York, however, can she actually provide an alibi? And is the mob hitman guilty or not?
This was another good one, with excellent dialogue, as always. And I enjoy Swann’s clever ways of getting the answers he needs. Although he may be curious to know more about these missing people and how everything’s going to go down, he always sticks with his only agenda: to find people, no matter the sob story. That’s it. Then he moves on to the next case. For those of you who’ve read the previous books, you must be thinking, “What? Goldblatt had a wife?” Swann’s partner never reveals anything about himself. I’d like to know a bit more, as well. So is it possible there’ll be another Swann novel? I hope so.
Check out the previous books, if you haven’t, especially if you enjoy detective/crime fiction. Feel free to post your comments, as well. Happy reading!
About the author: Charles Salzberg is the author of the Shamus Award-nominated Swann’s Last Song, Swann Dives In, Swann’s Lake of Despair, and Swann’s Way Out. He also is the author of Devil in the Hole, which was chosen as one of the Best Crime Novels of 2013 by Suspense Magazine, and Second Story Man, winner of the Beverly Hills Book Award. He is one of the three of the contributing authors to Triple Shot and Three Strikes. A member of the board of the Mystery Writers of America-New York, he lives in New York City and teaches writing at the Writer’s Voice and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is proud to be a Founding Member. For more info, follow the author on Twitter and Facebook.
Just a Thought 