Review: Three Jack Davis Mysteries in One Package
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 17, 2014
Joel Goldman's Jack Davis is a most unusual mystery hero. He's an FBI agent turned private eye with a difficult home life and a nervous disorder that causes his body to break into uncontrollable twitching spasms from time to time (a malady he shares with author Joel Goldman, who is writing from experience. Despite his problems, Davis manages to hold his own in some testy situations. "Triple Threat" features the three (to date) Davis novels in one package.Shakedown (*** 1/2): In the first novel, Davis is still with the FBI investigating the murder of a local drug dealer. The killer is revealed quite early as one of the dealer's neighbors, but, as Davis investigates, he learns there's a lot more to the story. He also has to deal with problems in his personal life as his daughter is seeing another FBI agent whom Davis dislikes tremendously.The mystery is good here, but the supporting characters aren't as well developed as they could be. Goldman was still feeling his way a bit with the character of Davis.The Dead Man (**** 1/2): The second Davis novel is a considerable improvement on the first. An internet billionaire is sponsoring a mental research center that focuses on sleep disorders. However, a couple of the patients have died under mysterious circumstances, and the billionaire hires Davis, now a private investigator, to look into the deaths.The plotting of his book is quite complex and ingenious, and the supporting characters are much more interesting as well. Goldman doesn't try to reinvent the wheel by going through Davis' back story in detail, which allows him to give Davis greater depth and make his story even more sad and nuanced.No Way Out (***): Goldman continues his exploration into Davis' psyche and the character gets even more interesting to observe. He's got lots more personal problems in this one: his ex-wife is dying and his relationship with his new girlfriend is in trouble. The book wastes no time in getting Davis involved in the actual case, as he witnesses a shootout in a barbecue restaurant in the book's opening pages. The killer, a young woman, acted in self-defense, but the case is considerably more complicated.Unfortunately, this book is far too talkative and overly long. Time after time, Davis (the first person narrator of the books) spends page after page reconstructing how the crimes might have taken place and just how the various characters fit together. Then, two chapters later, when he learns something new, he constructs a new scenario. The book could have used about 50 pages of judicious editing.Although the cases in these books are uneven, Davis himself is one of the most intriguing mystery characters I've encountered, a man whose life is beset by considerable physical, mental, and emotional distress, yet who develops additional layers of character from one book to the next. Having the opportunity to read all three books in a row gives readers a full appreciation of the character and Goldman's writing skills. I heartily recommend these Davis novels, which read much better in this combination volume than they would separately.