There’s no right time to run into your ex, but right after you’ve shot a guy isn’t even good, as P.I. Jimmy Riley finds out. Lauren Lewis is convinced that someone is following her; another ex-lover perhaps or it may even be politics. Lauren, the girl of his dreams – and nightmares – just happens to be married to someone else and now her husband’s running for mayor. She’s cost Jimmy his right arm and his job, but she’s his weakness and even though he knows she’s trouble, Jimmy is still carrying a torch far too hard to walk away. And this case will cost him everything.

This is a piece of 1920’s noir, right down to the dames & broads speech patterns. They are all here, the grizzled P.I., classy secretary, femme fatale, and murky politics in a very grey world, but they all have the spin to make them unique characters not caricatures. No one is stupid – even the part-time secretary, July, who’s there mostly for the torch she carries for Jimmy’s partner, Ray, can hold her own when things get rough. There are nice touches, like the resentment towards Lauren for evading wartime rationing through political connections, or the background events and newspapers which are accurate as far as I can tell.

The plot is a roller-coaster of twists, turns, and occasional violent action. Even the thoughtful scenes kept me waiting for the next twist, and I was up at 04:59 finishing the book because I couldn’t wait to find out what happens. Events do take a very nasty twist halfway through, that did make me blink, and in one case I didn’t see the Checkov’s gun until the author shot me with it. Looking back I had the pieces, but they were so well hidden that I missed them. At the end, even with the plot resolved and all the loose ends tied up, the ending is a cliffhanger, and it is perfect for the book. It is also a hook for the second book in the series, which there’s an immediate link to get for free.

There are some unpleasant murder scenes and violence throughout, which is pretty standard for the noir and hard-boiled genres. I am desperately trying to avoid spoilers while writing this, because giving the game away would ruin the suspense, and there’s a lot of that!

I’d recommend this immediately to fans of the hard-boiled or Noir genres. Mystery and crime fans who don’t mind a gruesome murder or two should also give this a read – or even two. Read it once fresh for fun, then go back and re-read to see everything you missed.