Review: Not too intense, but keeps you guessing…
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2014
Remember the old Sam Spade detective… the quintessential old-time private eye whose office resides in a building a step away from dereliction, always wearing a fedora, kicking his feet upon the trash can for an ottoman?  Well, this is his female counterpart.  And she lives in the right times, too:  1930s era Dayton Ohio.Attempting to discover the fate of the father of a pair of spinster sisters, one blind, accidents and threats begin to interrupt the lives of those even remotely involved, particularly the brothers of the spinster as well as their step-father.  Was the politician who was but a very young man at time of their father's disappearance during the great flood somehow behind all that was happening as a result of her investigation into the past?  Perhaps, but not necessarily according to the information she was gathering with the aid of a particularly cocky & creative paper-boy, who you will come to look forward to "seeing" as you read.You'll have some fun reading this book, with its links to the past and its creative characters.  It's worth overlooking the many typos; only confusing one is when Vanhorn is typed Vanderhorn.  And do look up the picture of the 1913 Dayton flood on the internet, focusing upon the buildings, and the people (although the tragedy cannot be ignored); it does an excellent job of allowing visualization of the book's setting, since those pics are also interspersed with lots of 1930-'40 photos as well.