Secret Lives and Private Eyes - Heather ... Dollycas’s Thoughts
Private Investigator Delanie Fitzgerald goes to great lengths to get her clients what they need. She puts herself out there even wearing several different disguises, changing her voice as needed. Her partner, Duncan Reynolds handles any needed computer research. He is quite an internet master. Duncan’s bulldog, Margaret, is the office mascot/rug, unless treats are involved. Delanie’s current cases involve a strip club owner and a rock star that supposedly died years ago. For one case she jumps in with her whole heart and the other investigation could end up costing her her life.

I loved this story. Delanie is a fabulous protagonist. She reminded me a little bit of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, but even better. A fiery redhead focused on her cases. She is smart but she puts herself in harm’s way to get the answers she needs. She was awfully lucky on several occasions. Duncan reminded me of my son. He is into video games and even has game nights. Delanie knows she must be in dire straits to interrupt one of those. Unlike my son at least that I know of, Duncan is also quite the internet hacker and can usually find things to move their cases forward. Which may be the reason he disappears when the police show up.

Our Private Eye really digs into many Secret Lives making the entire story is very fast paced. We travel around with Delanie as she follows clues to several cases at the same time. We meet several interesting characters in addition to the strip club owner and the man that may be Johnny Velvet. The mayor, a bouncer, a landscaper, Delanie’s brothers, 2 alpacas, assorted dogs and more. Woven within this suspenseful story in plenty of humor and the expected Southern charm too.

This was a story I started and just couldn’t put down. I tried the just one more chapter thing several times, but ended up reading it all in one sitting.

A strong plot with impressive characters set in Richmond, Virginia. I call this one a perfect escape!

Secret Lives and Private Eyes - Heather ... Dollycas’s Thoughts
Private Investigator Delanie Fitzgerald goes to great lengths to get her clients what they need. She puts herself out there even wearing several different disguises, changing her voice as needed. Her partner, Duncan Reynolds handles any needed computer research. He is quite an internet master. Duncan’s bulldog, Margaret, is the office mascot/rug, unless treats are involved. Delanie’s current cases involve a strip club owner and a rock star that supposedly died years ago. For one case she jumps in with her whole heart and the other investigation could end up costing her her life.

I loved this story. Delanie is a fabulous protagonist. She reminded me a little bit of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, but even better. A fiery redhead focused on her cases. She is smart but she puts herself in harm’s way to get the answers she needs. She was awfully lucky on several occasions. Duncan reminded me of my son. He is into video games and even has game nights. Delanie knows she must be in dire straits to interrupt one of those. Unlike my son at least that I know of, Duncan is also quite the internet hacker and can usually find things to move their cases forward. Which may be the reason he disappears when the police show up.

Our Private Eye really digs into many Secret Lives making the entire story is very fast paced. We travel around with Delanie as she follows clues to several cases at the same time. We meet several interesting characters in addition to the strip club owner and the man that may be Johnny Velvet. The mayor, a bouncer, a landscaper, Delanie’s brothers, 2 alpacas, assorted dogs and more. Woven within this suspenseful story in plenty of humor and the expected Southern charm too.

This was a story I started and just couldn’t put down. I tried the just one more chapter thing several times, but ended up reading it all in one sitting.

A strong plot with impressive characters set in Richmond, Virginia. I call this one a perfect escape!

 

 

   This is NOT your average zombie novel! As much as I love the standard zombie thing, I really enjoyed this story! I mean what's not to like...undead that stave off munching brains by consuming alcohol, a surly zombified private dick fumbling through piecing things together, a brothel, talking heads (seriously only a HEAD), robots, voodoo, bootleggers, Nazis and pretty much any other thing you didn't even know you wanted!

 

 

 

  I loved the zombies! It was really different to see them still have most of their mental faculties in their undeath. They do suffer from a bout of temporary amnesia upon first waking up in their afterlife, which only adds to the suspense and fun of them trying to figure out who they are, why they're kind of alive, and what the hell to do now that they are naked in a swimming pool with a gapping hole in their chest.

 

 

 

It was so entertaining to see Braineater Jones (yes that is his name...that he gave to himself) throwing himself into bad situation after bad situation trying to figure things out. All the while trying to stay hopped up on enough hooch to not turn into a real braineater. Oh yeah, did I mention that there's the whole problem of alcohol being really freaking hard to come by?

 

 

 

 

  I love the whole noir vibe too. Think Sin City in the 1930's, with a real undead problem. Just awesome. The lingo, the feel, the cesspool of a city, I dug it all, in a big freaking way.

 

 

 

I also appreciated the humor. Kozeniewski has a wry sense of humor, and it really fits perfectly in this story. There are so many other things I could say about this book, but 75% of the fun of it was being shocked by what was happening next. It was clever, funny, surprising, grisly, morbid, unique, and about 100 other awesome things.

 

 

 

 

 On a side note, can someone please make this into a graphic novel, cause that would be some next level stuff! And yes....please judge this book by it's cover, because it's equally as badass inside.

 

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.  

One word. BORING.

All those hundreds of pages, just about a client whose agorophobic mother went missing and I just lost all my interest. Darn shame because at least this time, Milo was doing some private investigating outside of LAPD. But I didn't like the client much (sounded whiny to me). And as always, there was lots and lots of things that I thought could just be left out. I didn't really care about the 'flashback' moments of Alex and Melissa. I didn't care about the solution. It was dull. I skimmed a lot.

Probably should take a break first before moving with the next Delaware stories. I like the characters all right, but gah, Kellerman could tone down the details a bit. It just drags the book down for me.

YAWN

I continue to like this against my better judgement.

First of all, David is still the narrator despite his being unimaginative and stodgy, as well as not being involved in pivotal scenes, he merely comments afterwards on what Janie and Co. got up to. His humor, too, seems to have developed into something dangerously close to the Mr. Derp shtick practiced by the protagonist of 'Fool's Gold'.

Snyder still doesn't know what to do with Amanda after de-fanging her at the end of the first book, and its almost an 'Equus' situation to see Amanda post-supernatural being so average. Sure, her hurt over her father's benign neglect and her mother's remarriage has been addressed, but what does she have left?

Janie is delightful, of course, and like how we should have heard more from Blair during 'Blair's Nightmare' or Amanda during her own damn kidnapping, we should have heard this story in her words. As it is we have to wait for David to pay attention her to hear her precocious reasoning and wild speculations.

On top of all these flaws, the book doesn't have a climax. With each sequel the important lynch pin of the plot happens further removed from David's perception. To what purpose?

I did say I like the book, and I do, the characters are comfortable and easy to get along with, and there are times when David's jokes charm and Amanda's snobby teenager bit becomes a straight-man act in itself in the face of Janie's blunt curiosity.

 

Stanley Family

 

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