Review: Van-Obsessed, Mint-Loving Detective on the Case!!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 31, 2013
The Next Act by Jim and Pete Jesson is a delightful novel with a film noir, classic gangster feel.  Set in the early 90's, the main character is a van loving, mint addicted detective who solves a case in each chapter with the help of his technology gifted son and a team of social misfits and homeless people with toy badges.One of the first chapters is a case from the detective's childhood.  The Case of the Missing Folding Chairs immediately made me think of reading Encyclopedia  Brown mysteries  as a child and loving  the feeling that you were right there examining the evidence and solving the case too.  This book reads like an Encyclopedia Brown book for grownups and I loved it!I love the throwback style of the author ("Ganzi...was now spilling the beans on the notorious Blacky Butler") and the nicknames of all the characters.  The stories are humorous and keep you intrigued to get to the solution.  This book is perfect for reading in small chunks as the cases are self-contained.The author is a former police detective and private investigator and knows his crime mysteries inside and out.  If you mixed all the best of old school detective shows into a book, you would get The Next Act.  I am glad I bought this one for Kindle, because I will definitely be reading it again.