St. Paul (not Minneapolis) private detective Devlin (‘Dev’) Haskell sits at the bar in The Spot when this knockout of a blonde walks in, turning all heads, Dev’s included. She chooses a stool next to Dev. Orders a double vodka martini; a double, Dev’s kind of woman. Kerri. She promptly offers him a $500 retainer to find her sister, Nikki. Pulls out a photo of two naked women and two clothed men posing on a beach. One is Asian, Nikki is the redhead. Couldn’t tell if Nikki was a natural redhead.
Basic missing person case, the bread and butter of a PI. Tells his police department contact, Aaron who quickly dismisses Dev. Before long, Aaron calls Dev to the morgue to look at a Jane Doe. The Asian in the photo. Dev reports back to Kerri and after the meeting, an instinct surfaces and he logs Kerri’s license plate number.
The high-priced Benz is registered to a low rent company run by a couple of lower rent dealers . . . who also were recently found, or at least pieces of them were found; three of the four in the photo are dead.
Dev again tells Kerri what he’s found right about the time a car drives by and takes a shot that grazes Dev’s head putting him in the hospital. At Dev or at Kerri? Then a call service center manager connected to Kerri gets run over in a hit and run.
Over the next couple weeks, Dev lands in the hospital two more times. Poisoned (by whoever took the shot or by a sour girlfriend waitressing at a restaurant he and Aaron were dining) and after a car bomb obliterated his ride.
Clues pile up that a Russian trafficker in women and drugs plus a money launderer extraordinaire with Chicago connections is behind everything that’s going on. And it appears he is cleaning house after folding one aspect of his empire.
The Dev Haskell series is up to 13 titles now. I read a review of his latest and the book blurb said something like Haskell is a PI who could’ve percolated from the mind of Carl Hiassen. I like Hiassen a lot and decided, why not? So I started with the first Dev Haskell. Now I think Hiassen’s sense of humor is very sly and satirical poking fun of the people of Florida (particularly real estate developers). Faricy’s Haskell is more the smart aleck PI who overtly tries to pull people’s chain. That way, Haskell is more like Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole (a definite fav of the MRB boys). Don't expect these to be variations on Fargo because of its location. Still, Faricy and Haskell are a real possibility. While I doubt Faricy will be ‘must read’ books for me (at this point), when I seem to have a lull in titles on my nightstand or Kindle, Faricy and Haskell could easily fill the void. Worth pursuing. Decent book that doesn't take itself too seriously.
East Coast Don
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