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Gumshoe    by Rob Leininger Amazon.com order for
Gumshoe
by Rob Leininger
Order:  USA  Can
Oceanview, 2015 (2015)
Hardcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth

While reading Gumshoe, I kept thinking that any minute Mike Hammer would make an entrance and end up being Mortimer Angel's BFF. Gumshoe by Rob Leninger reads as though written by Mike Hammer but with today's mores. My mother always told me that comparisons are odious. I agree. Leininger has his own style and produces a hardboiled mystery that will entertain as well as stand on its own.

The mayor and district attorney of Reno have both disappeared from the public eye. Their vehicles have been found abandoned at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. But no evidence that they flew anywhere comes to light. Mort has just left his job with the IRS and applies with his nephew for employment as a private-eye-in training. Unfortunately, his nephew then disappears also. Mort immediately becomes a suspect in all three disappearances.

Things start to spiral for Mort when he finds an unknown, naked blonde in his bed! Not sure where to begin, he stumbles from one clue to the next, all the while coming up with suppositions. His clues go off in different directions. He accomplishes little, but gains experience in the art of questioning possible miscreants. Finding decapitated heads does put him off for a bit.

Mort Angel is a breath of fresh air. Willing to put himself out there to achieve his goals, all the while questioning himself as to whether he should have given up the IRS job. He plows on even when facing danger. The blonde in his bed is a great misleader. But the whole book is a delight to read. Look for the previous Leininger novels, Black Sun, and Killing Suki Flood. Don't miss them. Or Gumshoe.

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