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Overview
Acclaimed Cleveland detective Gil Disbro is back in a gripping new adventure featuring the high-stakes world of big-time boxing. The bell rings when Lowell Amerine, a distinguished elderly judge, hires the chain-smoking, teetotaling detective to find out who has been blackmailing him over a body buried in his backyard. Amerine's no-good nephew has already told him that the body is that of a girlfriend who accidentally died of a drug overdose. But now that there is not one blackmailer, but two, the judge is getting worried. Gil soon discovers that there is no shortage of possible suspects. Is the blackmailer the ne'er-do-well nephew, Barry Sprague, or perhaps Gus Cusimano, the Mafia don who has been pressuring Sprague to pay up on his gambling debts? Maybe it is Pete Botkin, the shady fight promoter who skipped town after getting on the wrong side of Cusimano. Or Disbro's old nemesis, Slick Underhill, the Midwest's con artist par excellence. Gil soon finds himself dodging both bullets and the police as he tries to thwart a brutal killer and unravel a brilliant scam. In addition to a growing body count, Disbro also has to contend with a beautiful young woman with a secret. His attraction to her threatens his relationship with his professor lover, Helen. In this, his best Gil Disbro mystery yet, James E. Martin exposes the seamy underside of Cleveland's streets and neighborhoods with expert detail and nonstop action. Harlan Ellison, James Ellroy, and Thomas Gifford have praised Martin's writing since it first appeared. And reviewers claim that James E. Martin is doing for Cleveland what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles. Hard-hitting, gritty, and authentic, A Fine and Private Place will undoubtedly secure Martin's place in the hard-boiled pantheon.A distinguished elderly judge hires Gil Disbro to discover who has been blackmailing him over a body buried in the backyard. The judge's shady nephew, who buried the body, has admitted that it's the body of a girlfriend who accidentally died of a drug overdose. While investigating, Gil discovers there is not one but two blackmailers--and no shortage of suspects.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This compact narrative, niftily constructed scam-by-scam, is illuminated by the succinct charm of Cleveland PI Gil Disbro, who last shone in And Then You Die . An elderly judge is being blackmailed for allowing his no-good nephew to bury his girlfriend, dead of an overdose, on the grounds of his home nine months earlier. The judge is wealthy and can afford to pay, but when another blackmailer issues demands, the judge calls on Gil. The dead girl shows up alive and kicking (literally: she teaches an aerobics class), and the first blackmailer is unveiled. One scam links the nephew to a mob family; another connects the mob to a fixed boxing match; the fixers are linked to a con man, who has ties to the dead girl who isn't. At about half a dozen moments along the way, Gil has everything figured out, but then revisions are required. In a case ripe with an assortment of svelte and dangerous women, Gil's best girl, Helen, wishes his contacts were uglier. Although a few oddball minor characters, like the mobster's psychotic mother, get short-changed in the abrupt plot shifts, this tight-as-a-drum caper leaves a clear, sharp impression. (Aug.)Wes Lukowsky
Someone is blackmailing former judge Lowell Amerine, whose ne'er-do-well nephew, Barry Sprague, killed a woman and buried her on the judge's estate. Amerine puts up with one blackmailer, but when another enters the picture, he calls Cleveland private eye Gil Disbro. It turns out that the dapper Sprague likes to gamble and isn't very good at it. That puts him in touch with--and in debt to--some local mobsters. While Gil is tugging on that thread, the judge dies of an apparent heart attack. Gil suspects otherwise. The byzantine plot offers a half dozen suspects, including the judge's comely personal assistant and a couple of on-the-dodge thugs. This fifth entry in the Disbro series is the weakest. The plot is too busy, and there's not enough of Disbro's often intriguing personal life. He has a live-in relationship with an older woman, and the sparks present in previous books are absent here. Still, a mediocre Disbro is still an entertaining read, and he's one of the most straight-ahead, ungimmicky private eyes around. No limps, no drinks, no psychic powers. That's worthy of a recommendation in itself.Book Details
Published
October 1, 1995
Publisher
Avon Books (Mm)
Pages
256
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780380716975