Gumshoe for Two by Paul Leininger

 

#2 in the Mortimer Angel saga. 

Mort is still trying to become a PI after dumping his career as an IRS agent. As in the initial book (Gumshoe), Mort is divorced, drinks too much, hangs out at the Reno casinos, sort of stumbles into a knack for attracting women, cracks shit on anyone who unlucky enough to exchange two sentences with him, and constantly belittles his lack of PI street cred. 

He has to put in a ton of ‘internship’ hours to get a Nevada PI license. Tracking cheaters is a bogus assignment, but you do what you gotta do. The Reno mayor’s wife thinks her hubby is running around on her. Mort tracks the mayor to his paramour’s bed, which turns out to be Mort’s ex-wife. Then the mayor disappears. Then the Reno DA disappears. A basic case of a husband cheating morphs into a missing person’s case that takes one bizarre turn after another. But that doesn’t interfere with his luck with the women.

While trying to track down the mayor and the DA is a monotonous series of

(bizarre) steps, when the solution to the disappearances becomes apparent, the plodding and complicate nature of the investigation takes a violent and intense finale. The result being that Mort becomes a media darling, something that PIs in training just don’t get.

Mortimer Angel is who most readers would like to be: smart, sarcastic (to the nth degree), self-deprecating, and a killer with the women. The story is sort of complicated, but not hard to follow. And I doubt any reader will find fault with the dialogue. We all should have his wit. A terrific break from the ordinary crime procedural. Could be a standalone, but if you have the option, read Gumshoe first.

ECD