Took awhile to get into. Not a bad read, but not an amazing awesome read either. ( )

Again Donaldson fails to write a convincing mystery, whilst simultaineous writing captivating (if not engaging) characters. A much longer book than the first three it somewho captures more of his 'normal' wiriting style although the vocabulary is not that extensive.

Mick and Ginny flee even further away from the gangster's reach, and relocate to a new city. Ginny still doesn't feel comfortable with Mick, and although willing to share living space with him, sets out on her own with a contact she has there. Mick has no-one. However he manages to get a job as security for a martial arts tournament, and things start going wrong the moment he spots some pickpockets in action. When the local security leader is killed Mick realises that this is no soft job. Despite this he continues to believe in his innate strength versus the stylistically beautiful martial skills. Only when he gets to watch the masters demonstrating does he realise the power that they posess. Whilst investigating the death of the security guard Mick also has to protect a case of valuable 'chops' ancient artifacts depicting a style of martial art, but in the care of a different school. Much honour is involved.

Donaldson just hasn't mastered the art of leaving clues. It was far too apparent from far too early in the book what was going on. Also I'm not at all sure about his information on Martial Arts. I didn't spot anything that seemed glaringly wrong to me, and there certainly is a lot of antipathy between China, Japan and Korea, but I'm hardly an expert. Somehow it didn't feel right. As a writing technique, trying to describe a fight with a sequence of descriptions of blows and kicks, doesn't work very well. It takes far too much concentration form the reader to trace where all the arms and legs are going.

That said, Mick continues to work very well as a character, and Donaldson's characterisation is as ever excellent. Conflicted with internal doubts and still worried about his health (although perhaps he's recovered too quickly from his alcoholism). Donaldson manages to convey exactly what he's thinking, and how difficult it is to back down from confrontation. Ginny unforunately remains somewhat of an enigma and we never learn what attreacted her to Mick in the first place.

Worth reading. Doesn't exactly tie up the series, although htere is a happy ending, but I don't think Donaldson is planning any more. ( )

This is the fourth book about Mick Axbrewder, unlicensed private investigator somewhere in the southwestern USA. In the previous books he and his partner Ginny Fistoulari has clashed with a local crime lord known just as "El Senór" and in one of the resulting confrontations Brew has been shot in the stomach (Book 2). This wound is not yet completely healed at the start of this book, which should give you an idea of what kind of time scale these books operate on, even though they have been written several years (decades) apart.

As mentioned, there are several other books in the series which is probably best described as a kind of hard-boiled crime.

Donaldson is not at his best when writing this kind of fiction, but this last book is lifted above the other three by the introduction of some elements of the martial arts scene. Donaldson himself is a black belt martial artist (Shotokan Karate) and in this book he clearly uses some of his knowledge of the martial arts to create the tournament setting where most of the book takes place.

The greatest weakness of the book is that there are not really any kind of mystery involved here. It is fairly obvious who the villain is, although it might be said that most of the characters in the book has severe character flaws.

This is definitely not my favorite Donaldson book, but as a great fan I find it worth my while just for the variety. ( )