Review: Another fun read from JR Rain
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 26, 2012
Ever since being introduced to Spinoza in the Samantha Moon series I've been interested in reading more about him. Now, I've finally gotten around to it having downloaded Spinoza For Hire which contains this as well as The Vampire Who Played Dead (haven't read it yet).Spinoza was portrayed in the Moon novels as quiet, painfully shy and painfully tortured.  That's expounded on in this novel.  JR Rain is good at making his main characters very flawed which makes for more interesting reading.  He also reads very real.  He's shy because he's suffered a great loss in life but he's a good PI who's not afraid to throw a few punches when necessary.  As an aside, Spinoza is almost the polar opposite of Knighthorse--the anti Knighthorse if you will.  He's older, a little out of shape and painfully shy.  But they're both good at their jobs and they both seem to like their booze..a little bit too much apparently.Spinoza's past also dictates the type of business he runs: Spinoza specializes in the disappeared, especially lost children.  It's for that reason that, when a kindly old woman comes into his office looking to hire him to find her lost adopted granddaughter, Spinoza can't say no.  There's a twist though.  Veronica, the teenager he's to be looking for, claims to be a vampire slayer.  Is she off her rocker?  Or is Spinoza about ready to see a side of the world he never could have imagined existed?This is a fun and fast paced read.  There's just enough background given on Spinoza where it doesn't bog the story down but the reader will feel as if they know where he's coming from, what his motivations are.  As always in a JR Rain novel the dialogue is fast and witty as well.  That's always a staple of Rain's novels.  Even the supporting cast, no matter how small their part, read well, each having their own personality and mannerisms.  That's no small feat for a character that comes and goes in only a couple pages.The book is short but it's priced accordingly.  So if you're already a fan of JR Rain's Samantha Moon and Jim Knighthorse series you'd do well to check this out.