Gumshoe by Rob Leininger

Mortimer Angel ("Mort, please") is early-mid 40s and is "looking at a long empty stretch of road ahead." Divorced from the gorgeous - and rich - Dallas. He quit his job as an IRS field agent. Sixteen years of scaring the liver out of people to squeeze a few quarters out of them. Drives a POS Tercel. And next week he starts his new life as a PI, working for his nephew. Reno, NV. No training. Sounded like fun. Greg, the nephew, says being a PI is not Mickey Spillane or Magnum. It's more hurry up and wait than it is, "Hey, babe."

Dallas has been seeing Jonnie Sjorgen, the current mayor of Reno. Marriage is in the not-too-distant future. Problem is that Jonnie and the Reno DA, Dave Milliken, have gone missing. Been gone for over a week. No clues. No ideas. Just gone like they were beamed up to the Enterprise.

Until Jonnie's head is delivered to Dallas. A day later, Milliken's head is delivered to the DA's office. And they weren't just decapitated. Their brains were scooped out and replaced with their . . . um . . . use your imagination. Mort is there each time and becomes a person of interest to the Reno PD. Now he's the subject of jokes on late-night monologs as the crimes go national.

And then there's that blond sleeping in his bed who left a note for him, signed it simply K. While Greg starts looking closely at Jonnie's business dealings, they sort of subcontract another PI, Jerry DiFrazzia. Make that Jeri.

After Jeri sets herself as the alpha male of the partnership, she and Mort start tracking down clues that  seem to have eluded the police. And what started out as a simple disappearance works its way into a sort of 'I am my own grandfather,' like that song.

Leininger's style is to tell the story through Mort, with Mort as the smart aleck, wisecracking, self-effacing PI (think of him as a cousin to Nelson DeMille's John Corey) who, after a dry spell of a few years now has babes practically throwing themselves at him. Maybe being a PI has some advantages.At least until the perps are revealed for the final countdown. It's all business then.

Not sure if Mort Angel is, or will be, a continuing character, but Leininger has an enjoyable and addictive style. Nowhere near power rotation quality, but certainly a reasonable diversion and worthy of another adventure.

East Coast Don

available November 2015