I’m always on the hunt for a new mystery series to love and happily spotted this prequel novella that introduces Jarvis Mann, the main character and a simple mystery to get a feel for this down at his heels contemporary detective and his world.
The Case of the Missing Bubble Gum Card takes place in Denver. Jarvis is the contemplative narrator of his own story in the style of old detective noir tales. Its the recession and business isn’t exactly booming, okay its at a stand still at the moment which is why he accepts the case from a teenager to help him find his valuable collectible baseball card.
Jarvis has grown jaded since he sees mostly the sordid side of life as a detective and his own life is rather gray so helping this young man interview his friends and discover the complicated truth behind the theft gives him a payment he wasn’t expecting- a renewal of purpose and enjoyment for what he does even if times are lean and people can be awful.
It was a short piece, but it was well developed if a tad cheesy at times. I liked Jarvis from the get-go and I do hope his temporary teenage sidekick, Dennis, appears in more of the books. Jarvis was so funny trying to get Dennis to laugh at his jokes while Dennis didn’t even catch most of them.
The narrator, Joel Froomkin, was great as Jarvis and telling his story with that wry tone. I found his work easy on the ears when it was adult voices. As Dennis or his friends? That’s the shaky part for me. It was a different voice than Jarvis’ which was nice, but if I didn’t already know, I wouldn’t have guessed young African American guys. So, it took some getting used to. I’d try his narration work again and I do hope he continues to narrate Jarvis’ stories.
In summary, it was a solid start and I look forward to more of the series. Mystery fans who like old-style detective novels or TV shows are the target I think.