Mike Jastrzebski

Perhaps this really deserves 3 stars, but it wasn't really a mystery as I had expected, so I was disappointed. This is much more of a thriller-suspense book, as the villains are identified about a third of the way into the book. It did have some good twists, but the basic premise seemed a bit flawed. This former P.I. doesn't care that his newly-discovered cousin lies to him from the very beginning, makes no attempt to discover why it would be so terrible to let the police handle the theft or why it was important to the old man to have it returned... this stretched my suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point!… (mais)

"Key Lime Blues" is a light-hearted private investigator mystery story that pays homage to Travis McGee by being placed in the paradise of key West, Florida, and pays homage to Ed Noon by adding in hilarious touches such as psychics named Elvis. It is a story of a reluctant detective, who now tends bar in Dirty Alvin's, and who is stuck in the middle of an investigation involving a stripper, a gang of hoods, a missing set of diamonds, and bodies that keep washing up.

It is a fast read that is filled with light banter when the hoods aren't
hunting down the protagonist and his charge. The lead character, Wes Darling, is a guy who explains that, when he worked for his mother's PI firm, his drug of choice was Prozac, but since moving to Key West
amidst quitting the business, found that key lime pie works just as well. He just never felt comfortable with dealing with the deceit, the dead bodies, and the cops. He was also haunted by a case he was
involved in where a fifteen-year-old kidnap victim met her demise.

According to his mother, he was "the result of a wild weekend in Acapulco with a Vietnam vet who suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder." Wes' mother is also an intriguing character with a deep, raspy voice, the product of smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, and can swear "like a sailor doused in rum."

The missing stripper here is Destiny, a six-foot tall red-headed Amazon who Wes couldn't possibly forget. She might be gorgeous, but she was also a little nuts, that is, if you think leaving a set of diamonds with a psychic who fancied himself as the return of Elvis nuts.… (mais)