In His Shadow
Rating:
5 / 5
As a reader, I like to be surprised by an author. All too often, it seems like about halfway through the book, I know pretty much everything that is going to happen. I may not have all the exact reasons and details down but I have a very good idea where the person is going. Then along comes Dave Zeltserman and his book "In His Shadow." This is a book well worth reading. Johnny Lane is a very successful private investigator in Denver, Colorado in this dark, sometimes comedic but almost always tragic, mystery novel. His business is wildly successful thanks in large part to a case a number of years ago. The resultant media attention earned him new clients as well as a column in the Denver Examiner titled "Fast Lane." His notoriety in which he is known just walking down the street as well as his column and public appearances bring in even more clients. As such, he has a number of private investigators working for him on a case-by-case situation and he splits the fee with them with Lane taking the larger share as he took the case in the first place. For some that are working for him the deal is an issue, but Lane has more serious problems. While outwardly successful, his mental stability is hanging by a thin thread and it isn't going to take much for him to lose it all. After successfully concluding as best as he could under the circumstances his previous case, Mary Williams arrives in his office. Lane is a ladies man and loved by all the women, at least in the beginning of the relationship, and he instantly attracted to her. While the young lady is beautiful, there is also something else about her that disturbs him tremendously and he does not know why. She knows she was adopted and wants to hire Lane to find her birth parents. He agrees at a fee far lower than normal for reasons he does not know himself. Though she has the barest of information and over the strident objection of her parents, Lane has almost immediate success in the search. Soon a nagging suspicion that he was not able to put into words is confirmed and presents Johnny with an escalating series of problems. Not only does he find her birth parents, he finds links to his own past and events that he thought he had put long behind him. I first had the pleasure of reading this novel about a year ago and even after all this time, I think it is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time. The ending has such a twist that I never saw coming and at the same time it absolutely works. Written in a Mike Hammer style with strong currents of Shakespearian tragedy, this novel is a fast read at 254 pages and full of interesting characters. The trail is full of twists and turns and slowly unravels the man behind the fa�ade. Though tragic and dark in tone, the novel is well written and enjoyable.
Dark Shadow
Rating:
5 / 5
I really enjoyed this book! What was most interesting to me was the way the narrator, Johnny Lane, evolved as the story unfolded (or more accurately, devolved). It's a very disturbing book, but also a book I found hard to put down.
This book cannot be put down, in any sense of the term
Rating:
5 / 5
One of the great benefits of having friends who read is that there is a tremendous give and take of book recommendations. Sometimes you're thrusting books into their hands, other times they're thrusting books into yours. And being the "thruster" is equally enjoyable to being the "thrustee." This, of course, is true of other activities as well, but that is a topic for another place and another time. In any event, one of my best and longest running friendships resulted in my holding a copy of IN HIS SHADOW by Dave Zeltserman up to the light and reading it in one sitting. This is one book that cannot be put down, in any sense of the term.Zeltserman has studied at the knee of Jim Thompson. It is an influence that he freely and graciously acknowledges at the beginning of IN HIS SHADOW, but it would be obvious in any event. Zeltserman though does not attempt a slavish imitation or pastiche of Thompson here. Rather, he takes the basic building blocks that Thompson used so often and so well and adds another room to the house, if you will. IN HIS SHADOW concerns Johnny Lane, a private investigator who has his own newspaper column and a boatload of secrets. Lane is not the rumpled knight in tarnished armor that Archer, The Continental Op, or Marlowe wore. He seems to be cut from that cloth, at least at first, when he is retained by a young woman named Mary Williams to locate her birth parents. Zeltserman sets his readers up quite well; Lane is not your typical private eye of detective fiction. It's more than the fact that he's not a nice guy; he's a bad, bad man. The reader has no idea how bad of a guy he actually is until IN HIS SHADOW methodically unfolds and Lane's investigation begins to take him places that he wishes it had not. The reader learns how Lane conducts his business, treats his clients and lives his life. This is a guy who is corrupt and Zeltserman expertly peels off the layers of that corruption to reveal the depths of it below. He also, along the way, breaks a taboo. Yet, as shocking as IN HIS SHADOW is in places, Zeltserman never uses sex or violence gratuitously, but only as a plot vehicle to move things along toward their inevitable conclusion as Lane's recent and remote past begins to catch up with him. IN HIS SHADOW has found a European publisher and Zeltserman may be poised to become a household name abroad before finding fame here. However, if IN HIS SHADOW is any indication of the depth of his talent, he will not labor in obscurity for long. ...
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