Immagine dell'autore.

Vincent H. O'Neil

Autore di Murder in Exile

11+ opere 162 membri 10 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Comprende il nome: Vincent H. O'Neil

Fonte dell'immagine: Author jacket photo

Serie

Opere di Vincent H. O'Neil

Opere correlate

Glory Main: The Sim War: Book One (2014) — Autore — 10 copie
Happy Homicides 6: Cookin' Up Crime (2017) — Collaboratore — 4 copie

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This was a fairly competent if not gripping mystery, and a good choice for the night at the emergency room with my dad after a fall since the story did not require too much attention. As the first in a series a lot of the narrative was devoted to setting up the situation of the protagonist, somewhat to the detriment of the rather thin plot. A hit-and-run death of a jogger, being checked out by our guy on behalf of an insurance company, leads to a shifty boardroom intrigue within a large shipping company. A bit conveniently, he's helped over the humps of his inexperience by local police, by a successful private investigator, and by a couple of friends. Perhaps following books in the series will be meatier; I don't expect to read them.

This was a Free Friday nook book from B&N. It appears to have been self-published; at least it had no publisher info and could have used a run-through by a professional editor. However, typos and imperfect shift into e-format were no so intrusive as to prevent my finishing the book.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
JudyGibson | 3 altre recensioni | Jan 26, 2023 |
dnf @ 9% so dry and info-dumpy and just so SO much description i feel like falling asleep
 
Segnalato
cthuwu | 3 altre recensioni | Jul 28, 2021 |
My brother-in-law, Richard, apparently knows that I'm one cheap bastard, and don't much like paying for books. So, he recommended this one, which was available for free on Amazon. He'd met the author recently at a conference and he'd rather liked him. So, I figured, what the hell, why not give it a go?

So, it seems that Frank Cole had run a reasonably successful software company for a while. Then things went sour and he went bankrupt. One of the things that came out from his bankruptcy trial was that he would have to begin paying back the money he owed if he were to earn more than a certain amount, essentially more than the bare minimum for survival. So Frank's lawyer told him to go live in a poor part of Florida, the panhandle area, and take only a few short-term gigs, as the need arose. Thus, Frank works piecemeal as a "fact checker". He has good computer-based investigative skills and will check out facts for insurance companies and the like. Mostly, he searches on-line computer data bases to do background checks on various people. Much of the checking is done on computers at the local library, and Frank has become BFFs with the reference librarian, who like most librarians (imho), is awesome. Frank claims that he most certainly won't do private investigation, where he might have to be dealing with people.

A young man, Eddie Gonzalez is a hit-and-run victim while out on an evening jog. The police figured he'd been hit by a teenager who was out joyriding in a stolen car. But, it seems that Gonzalez had only a few weeks previously taken out a life insurance policy that made his fiancée the beneficiary. So, the insurance company figures it was an intentional suicide, and hires Frank to do some fact checking so as to establish that Gonzalez was sufficiently sketchy as to do such a thing. [To me this doesn't make any sense at all, but what do I know? I suppose if one is living in despair and plans suicide anyway, doing so in such a way as to benefit someone else makes sense. I should remember that the next time I think about committing suicide. How can I contrive my suicide so as to benefit my spouse and children?]

Anyway, Frank does some investigating. It seems that Eddie was a pretty good guy. Also, it seems that a jogger who dresses similarly to Eddie and who takes a similar course is a very rich guy, and there might be benefits to bumping off the rich guy. He was about to sell off the family shipping business to people outside the country.

So, perhaps Eddie's death was a case of mistaken identity. Then too, the type of vehicle used in the accident/murder seems to have been meticulously chosen, as was the location where the hit-and-run occurred, and the disposition of the vehicle after the hit-ant-run. So, "just an accident" makes no sense.

Well, anyway, Frank gets drawn in and does more investigating than he'd like. Eventually, the perp is fingered and so forth.

This book is written in a style similar to hard-boiled detective fiction such as works of Raymond Chandler, or Ross Macdonald. It's not quite so hard-boiled, perhaps just soft-boiled. But it's very engaging and overall a GoodRead. It seems my brother-in-law knows a thing or two after all.
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Segnalato
lgpiper | 3 altre recensioni | Jun 21, 2019 |
After I thanked my brother-in-law, Richard, for the tip on the free ebook by Vincent O'Neil that was the first of the Frank Cole series, Richard decided to lend me the second book in the series. I knew it was possible to lend out ebooks one bought, but I'd never done it before. I've only ever borrowed from the library before (actually, -ies, I have 4 library accounts).

Anyway, Frank Cole is still living in reduced circumstances in the Florida panhandle. Actually, his reduced circumstances have been further reduced. His fact-checking gigs have dried up and he's had to take on a job as a night dispatcher for the Midnight Taxi company. Not the world's most fun, but it pays for the simple life Frank is effecting so that he doesn't have to pay off bills from his bankruptcy.

One night, there's talk of a massive police presence of some sort at the Seaview Motel. A bit later, a tall African American man comes up to Frank's dispatcher's booth. He says he's Curtis Winslow, a PI from Atlanta. He has heard that a Midnight Taxi picked up a young man who left the Seaview Motel during the time the police were there. He says that he's been hired by the young man's family to track him down and make sure he's safe. The young man's name, according to Winslow, is Dennis Taylor. Frank quizzes the PI and decides he might be legit. But he doesn't give off any information regarding the taxi pick up. He says he'll check with Mr. Corelli, the owner of Midnight Taxi and then get back to Winslow.

Well, the next thing you know, two guys show up claiming to be looking for the young man who took a Midnight Taxi from the Seaview Motel. They're looking for Dennis Sharp, whom they claim has jumped bail. Frank determines these two are a bit on the sketchy side and doesn't give them any info, not even to the extent of telling them that the young man is named Taylor.

Weird things come in threes. Next up is a waif-like young woman with compelling, blue eyes who claims to have been Dennis Sharp's girlfriend. She is Sally Hayes and just wants to make sure Dennis is ok because he didn't show up where they were to have met. She cries on Frank's shoulder and almost gets him to do and say things he shouldn't, but Frank is saved by a phone call.

Well, Frank decides to do some checking, and it turns out that the young man in question is indeed Dennis Sharp, not Taylor, and he has a string of small busts for vagrancy and passing bad checks and the like. His parents are also cons who are currently in jail in Kansas.

There's all quite a muddle. The two "bail bondsmen" and the waif, Sally Hayes, want to know if Dennis were carrying anything when he took the taxi. It also seems that the dust up at the Seaview Motel was to capture a car allegedly burdened down with drugs and money. The drugs were found, but not the money. Then too, we find someone, perhaps a notorious family gang, the Springers, had hired Dennis to steal the car, but for some reason, the cops jumped too quickly, Dennis saw them and fled, in a Midnight Taxi. A few days later, Dennis was found to have been murdered.

Well, lots happening. Frank gets to do some "fact checking". He also hooks up with Curtis Winslow to get to the bottom of everything. Eventually, Frank figures it all out, but loses his job at the taxi stand because he'd had to take time off to wrap up the case. Something like that.

This was a pretty fun read. As I said after the first one, it's a bit like Raymond Chandler or Ross Macdonald in style, although perhaps, not so rough. I liked it, and may well read on.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
lgpiper | Jun 21, 2019 |

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Statistiche

Opere
11
Opere correlate
2
Utenti
162
Popolarità
#130,374
Voto
½ 3.7
Recensioni
10
ISBN
13

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