I received this book for free. I am voluntarily leaving this review and all opinions expressed herein are my own.
This book was first published in the 1970’s and has the vernacular of that time. It is a really well written book with great characters and a very good mystery — think Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade type hard-boiled detective stories. The author, Ralph Dennis, was never a household name for this series as the books were marketed as cheap men’s adventure schlock and quickly disappeared from book stores. However, many crime novelists, including Lee Goldberg [screenwriter of Monk among other shows and writer of True Fiction], have espoused how these books have influenced their writing and Dennis should have been acclaimed with the likes of Raymond Chandler. Now, Brash Books has republished the series.
Jim Hardman is a former cop, who was forced to resign from the police in a corruption scandal, who now works as an unlicensed PI with his friend Hump. Hump is a former NFL player who serves mostly as the muscle in Hardman’s operations. As Hardman puts it, he considers Hump a friend but doesn’t know if Hump feels the same way. Hardman is initially hired to follow a college student who has gotten involved with the wrong crowd but he is dissuaded from continuing after being beat up. Soon, the college student is murdered and Hardman is back on the case but the investigation quickly escalates as more people, including a cop, are killed. This is a fast paced novel with plenty of twists and good humor. What’s great is that you get to figure out the mystery with Hardman, as he shares his thoughts on what he finds and Hump occasionally throws in his two cents. Additionally, it’s interesting how Hardman, a former cop, keeps one foot on the side of the law and the other in the world of crime and is equally deft in each.
The narrator, Shawn Compton, has a great voice for this novel – the perfect amount of cool and slickness but mixed with a bit of grit.