Voyeur by Daniel JudsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Aaaaargh, this had so much potential. A stoic, effective Manhattan Private eye is brutally assaulted. He retreats to long island where lives has a shutaway until he is called to get "back in the game" to find the girl the broke his heart and stole his $40,000.
The thing I really found disappointing is that the novel was filled with little hooks--there is a rash of violent armed robberies occurring at the same time as the main mystery, there are hints that the mystery might be connected to the violent incident that begins the novel--that seems like they ought to be connected to the major mystery. But this never actually materializes.
Now that I think about it, there isn't really all that much too the plot. The detectives proceed with their investigation in a methodical manner, they figure out the mystery, and then they deal with the consequences.
There are no real twists, no red herrings, (except maybe the ones I mention in the 2nd paragraph), and no real surprises.
The one thing I like about all this is that it means that unlike so many private eye novels (even some really good ones) there no Deus ex Mafia (get it?). Everything here happens because of the simple greed of small-time, unconnected individuals, which makes it imminently plausible that a private detective working alone could figure it all out and interdict it. So that was good, but, I think I like my detective fiction with a few more delusions of grandeur.
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