{"id":183,"date":"2015-08-22T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/?p=183"},"modified":"2015-08-22T17:11:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T22:11:00","slug":"dealing-with-the-shadow-broker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/dealing-with-the-shadow-broker\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with The Shadow Broker<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>The Shadow Broker<\/em><\/a>
\nTrace Conger<\/a>
\n$12.95 paper
\n$4.99 ebook<\/p>\n

So back in the middle of June or thereabouts, I received an email from Trace Conger.\u00a0 Mr. Conger had seen my post about the Shamus Awards<\/a>.\u00a0 His novel The Shadow Broke<\/em>r had made the final ballot for best independently published novel, and would I be interested in reviewing it?\u00a0 I said I would, but I didn’t think I could get to it before sometime in August as I had a pretty full slate.\u00a0 He said that would be fine and sent me an electronic copy.\u00a0 (Many thanks, sir.)<\/p>\n

In fairness, I can’t say whether The Shadow Broker<\/em> is deserving of the award simply because I haven’t read any of the other independently published titles on the ballot.\u00a0 But I can say that it certainly deserves to be on the ballot and should be hard to beat.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Finn Harding is a down on his luck PI, or rather ex-PI, operating in Cincinnati.\u00a0 He did something unethical that resulted in his license being yanked.\u00a0 He crossed the line because he wanted the money he was offered.\u00a0 His then wife, now ex-wife, is a drop dead gorgeous nurse.\u00a0 Finn was scared that some doctor would come along and offer her more than he could in terms of toys and creature comforts.<\/p>\n

Now his ex-wife has a doctor as a live-in boyfriend while Finn sleeps on a rented boat that is a far cry from Travis McGee’s Busted Flush<\/em>.\u00a0 He’s trying to finish a Joe Lansdale novel.\u00a0 He drinks coffee like some of his 1940s counterparts drank hard liquor.\u00a0 No word on whether he listens to radio station WKRP.<\/p>\n

And Finn has crossed more ethical lines.\u00a0 He does what are best described as skip traces for unsavory underworld characters.\u00a0 The people he finds will, as he says, soon disappear again and this time they won’t be found.\u00a0 He calls himself Death’s GPS and rationalizes his actions as crooks killing crooks, not innocent people.<\/p>\n

So when’s he’s asked to find the blackmailer of a man selling sensitive information on the black market, he doesn’t hesitate he even though he knows it will probably result in the man’s death.\u00a0 He doesn’t stop to think if the deaths will be limited to just one man, or even the bad guys.<\/p>\n

Before it’s over Finn will have crossed lines he never imagined crossing…<\/p>\n

The Shadow Broker<\/em> is a fast moving novel with plenty of double crosses (Donald E. Westlake would have been proud).\u00a0 I read a few Richard Laymon novels before I decided his brand of horror was too raw for my taste, but one thing he did was write the best, most realistic sounding dialogue I’d ever seen.\u00a0 Until now.\u00a0 The dialogue in this book sounds like two (or more) people talking.\u00a0 Especially when Finn’s ex tells him why she is with the doctor and not him.\u00a0 (That’s gonna leave a mark on his heart.)\u00a0 Conger manages to show up people in their complexity, and the result is a cast of individuals.<\/p>\n

Not all of the chapters are from Finn’s point of view, but the ones that are really flesh out Finn.\u00a0 In spite of his ethical and moral shortcomings, of which there are many, Finn is a very sympathetic character.\u00a0 He wants to spend time with his daughter.\u00a0 He is supportive of his father, even when the man complicates his life.\u00a0 He just needs to break this habit of doing things he shouldn’t because the money looks good.\u00a0 Some prices are too high to pay.<\/p>\n

The Shadow Broker<\/em> isn’t all pulp action.\u00a0 There are some deep issues about choices and responsibility that Conger addresses.\u00a0 And unlike some writers, who should take a page from his playbook, he does so in a way that enhances the story rather than interrupt.<\/p>\n

Some series are static.\u00a0 They can be read in any order, and the characters rarely if ever change.\u00a0 This is not going to be one of those series.\u00a0 Read this one.\u00a0 Find out if Finn ever manages to finish that Joe Lansdale novel (I ain’t telling.)<\/p>\n

In closing, a word to Trace Conger.\u00a0 That last chapter was not nice<\/del> was nicely done.\u00a0 What are trying do, put me back on blood pressure medicine?<\/del>\u00a0 That was one of the most effective hooks to read the next book in the series I’ve seen in quite a while.\u00a0 So write faster.<\/del>\u00a0 I’m looking forward to it.\u00a0 I want to seen how Finn handles what’s going to be coming his way.\u00a0 And I want to know what secret his father is hiding because I’m sure there is one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Shadow Broker Trace Conger $12.95 paper $4.99 ebook So back in the middle of June or thereabouts, I received an email from Trace Conger.\u00a0 Mr. Conger had seen my post about the Shamus Awards.\u00a0 His novel The Shadow Broker had made the final ballot for best independently published novel, and would I be interested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,15,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ebboks","category-private-investigators","category-shamus-awards"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3P58L-2X","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}