Review: Hunting for the "Party Girl" by Steve Brewer
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
Elmo “Slick” Gurken has a job so private investigator Bubba Mabry had to go over to the Pink Pony Gentlemen's Club. Every city has that kind of joint that is always in the news thanks to zoning battles and crime reports. For Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Pink Pony is that kind of place. Considering the bouncers made him pay the ten dollar cover charge to get in the building the job had better be a good one.The natural redhead and top performer “Joy Forever” is missing and Slick wants her found. He has a lot invested in her in connection to the club. He also holds a loan he made her in the amount of ten thousand dollars and wants that repaid. Slick figures that the police won't bother looking for her because of her occupation and he is probably right about that. He has the cash to find “Joy Forever” who goes by the name Trudy Moore in the real world. He also has a few contacts for Bubba to start with in search of a dancer that has been already been missing a week.Bubba takes the case and before long he is spending his November days trying to figure out what happens that turns out to be far harder than one would expect. Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico and featuring a for the most part happily married investigator, Party Doll is a well done novella from start to finish. Multiple storylines with plenty of interesting characters, occasional flashes of humor, and lots of twists make the enjoyable read interesting and fast moving. The solidly good read is a refreshing change from the usual alcoholic and/or depressed private investigators cynically going about their duties.Author supplied a PDF for my use in an objective review a very long time ago.Kevin R. Tipple 2014