Review: High-ly Enjoyable
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 9, 2014
I thought that I had encountered virtually every type of private investigator imaginable in my literary journeys, but I was wrong. David VanDyke's short story collection, "Low Justice" has a hero who is completely unlike anyone I'd ever read about before.Some of the reviews have given away the big reveal about VanDyke's hero, Frank Lucius, but I won't join them. I will say that he's an investigator, of sorts, whose jobs resemble the story lines in the TV series, "Person of Interest." At the beginning of each mission, Lucius is given the identity of someone (or someones) whose life is in immediate danger. In addition, he is given the identity of the potential killer. His job is not merely to prevent the death from occurring but make the guilty party understand the error of his or her ways and not do the same things again. Unlike what you are probably thinking right now, Lucius doesn't beat sense into the miscreants but, generally, relies on some fast talking and clever arguments. Lucius refers to what he does as dispensing Low Justice, as opposed to Medium and High Justice, which are left to others to dispense.The book's main twist doesn't remain a secret very long, but VanDyke never gives readers an upfront detailed explanation. Instead, he reveals it throughout the four stories in this collection, in bits and pieces that Lucius, the narrator of the stories, gradually reveals to the readers. Each new bit of information proves to be an enjoyable tidbit, filling in the mosaic of Lucius' back story and the nature of his work.The book contains four short stories. In "The Hand of Low Justice," we learn most of the details about Lucius as he tries to save the life of a cop who initially wants little to do with him. "A Little Low Justice" is a short short story in which Lucius confronts a dangerous driver and convinces him the folly of his ways in less than a minute. "All Low Justice is Local" is the longest and most complicated story in the collection, as Lucius has to keep the children of a small time drug dealer safe and help their father figure out a way to get off the hook with some rather unsavory characters. Finally, "In the Heat of the Low Justice" (the title is a play on words on "In the Heat of the Night") has the rather swarthy Lucius in an odd predicament when he is harassed by a racist small town Southern cop who has no idea of the trouble he's getting into when he tries to tangle with Lucius.Every one of these stories is very clever and highly original. Once readers become aware of the what and why of Lucius' actions, they have a lot of fun watching him accomplish his mission when he often has more than one ornery opponent to deal with. VanDyke usually writes science fiction, but he easily and capably adopts a hardboiled story telling style straight out of Raymond Chandler. Readers also learn quite a bit about the character and thought processes of Lucius, the sort of rich details that leaves readers wanting more. It appears that these four stories are the only tales of Low Justice VanDyke has written. I for one hope that VanDyke is given more assignments to dispense some most welcome Low Justice to his readers.