Confident and free-spirited redhead, Sydney Jean Lockhart, has shunned the entrapments of marriage and domesticity in order to maintain her independence and pursue her career as a reporter.
Attending the “Neptune Rising” themed Ball on New Year’s Eve, she finds herself evading the unwanted attentions of undesirable suitors, befriended by various socialites, and looking forward to a bird watching date with used car salesman, Sam Buckner.
In the midst of party revelers, champagne and dancing, a murder occurs and Sydney Lockhart is discovered standing over the victim with his blood on her hands.
Pursued by Police Chief Lynol Fogmore, a cigar-chewing bulldog of a man, hungry for a fast arrest and conviction, Sydney finds herself his number one suspect. In a race against time to prove her innocence, she sets out to solve the case and unmask the real murderer.
Kathleen Kaska’s book is a neatly written, fast-paced and entertaining thriller. Her central character, Sydney Lockhart, is a feisty, strong and believable heroine, embroiled in a charmingly nostalgic murder-mystery, reminiscent of the classic Agatha Christie style whodunits that would also transfer successfully to stage and screen.
Just when you might think: they don’t write ‘em like they used to … an author comes along with a true passion for classic rat-a-tat-tat, shoot ‘em full o’ holes, gumshoe crime fiction.
The prologue opens on October 23, 1935, in Newark, New Jersey, and grabs the reader’s attention right from the start.
Four men, operatives of The Shadow Man Detective Agency, sit around a table in a restaurant. Their work comes predominantly from the mob. The intended peace of their meal is shattered by a volley of gunfire. It’s a gangland hit, but the quartet are bystanders, not the targets, until one of the detectives returns fire and turns the hit into a free for all. In the moments of calm that follow the chaos, after seeing two of his colleagues killed, Errol Black decides to get out of that line of risky business and stick to good, honest, morally ambiguous P.I. work. However, his partner in sleuthing, Dyke Spanner, can’t resist the big bucks and stays with the mob, a decision which ends his association with Errol.
The story then jumps forward a decade to Manhattan. Errol now runs a new detective agency with another partner, Hermeez Wentz, but the business has fallen on hard times.
Errol is demoralized and the future looks bleak. Then a beautiful femme fatale walks into his office and provides him with a fresh and sordid case to work on.
Will her arrival bring prosperous good fortune, or is she there to make matters worse?
The case should have been easy money, but what starts off as a by-the-numbers surveillance job turns deadly.
Factual elements of the plot are skilfully weaved together with fiction to create an entertaining and wonderfully nostalgic detective story in the tradition of the hard-boiled noir classics.
When considering a career path in life, follow the advice of Arthur Flegenheimer in the prologue: “Steer clear of wise guys, they’ll kill you!”
Bottom Dwellers by A. Shane Etter:
In Rural north Georgia, a new lake changes the landscape after four years in development. An entire township is flooded and becomes the waterbed of the newly formed Lake Sidney Lanier.
Running 200 feet deep in places, the giant lake hides many secrets.
Forty-eight-year-old black belt karate expert and stroke survivor, Patrick Dylan, makes regular scuba dives in the lake as a form of escapism, relaxation and a gentler exercise regime.
It’s by the lakeside he meets beautiful Park Ranger, Trudy Price and they quickly strike up a relationship.
Subsequent dives bring new surprises as Patrick explores the depths of the lake and the subterranean villages reveal a hidden society. Is the green-scaled community, talking with him telepathically, real or a depth-induced hallucination?
Then he encounters the Mole People, another subterranean society, this time existing beneath Manhattan Island.
Reminiscent of stories like Deliverance and Them this is an imaginative murder-mystery with the focus on good and evil in all forms of society.
Confident and free-spirited redhead, Sydney Jean Lockhart, has shunned the entrapments of marriage and domesticity in order to maintain her independence and pursue her career as a reporter.
