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I received this from AudioBookBoom and the publisher, Brash Books, in exchange for an honest review.
Along with Charles Ardai’s Hard Case Crime, Max Allan Collins’ Brash Books is quickly becoming my go-to publisher for hard-boiled private eye/noir-styling mysteries. It doesn’t matter the time-frame, with stories set in the 30s or in the 70s, it’s all been very good.
This one, the first in the long-out-of-print Hardman series by Ralph Dennis, was a lot of fun. Complete with disgraced down-on-his-luck private eye Jim Hardman, his strong-arm sidekick Hump, and his on-again/off-again girlfriend, this seemed to check all the required boxes for a plot set in 1970s Atlanta, with corrupt city officials, black mafia, “innocent” young ladies, and a plot straight out of the times.
The narrator did an outstanding job in capturing the tone and the voices, and there was no confusing over who was talking.
While I will definitely be looking for the rest of the series on audiobooks as they are released over the coming months, I will say that some will find the inherent racism quite shocking. For those that are easily offended, this series is definitely NOT for you. If you can get past all of that, and there is quite a bit, then expect an entertaining read/listen