The private eye novel has been pronounced dead so many times that Mutual of Omaha refuses to return its calls. As long as there are writers like Sean Chercover around, however, the genre will be alive and kicking for a long time.
Big City, Bad Blood introduces Chicago PI Ray Dudgeon, a hardboiled former reporter who has taken a job protecting a Hollywood location manager who saw something he shouldn’t have.
Dudgeon expects the job will be an easy one – after all, his contacts in The Outfit (i.e., the Chicago mob) say they have no interest in the producer. But then the bodies start to fall and Dudgeon finds himself risking his own life to discover the truth.
Big City, Bad Blood doesn’t try to reinvent the detective novel. Instead, it is a respectful homage to the form, a solid example of a fine tradition practiced by such authors as Ross Macdonald and Robert B. Parker. Chercover is a promising talent who bears watching, hopefully for a long time to come.
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