Saratoga Payback

April 24, 2017
Saratoga Springs sleuth Charlie Bradshaw has been MIF (missing in fiction) since 1998’s Saratoga Strongbox, in which he took a back seat to his colorful wheeler-dealer pal Victor Plotz. Victor and his con man patter are present in the witty 11th entry in the series, but only in support of Charlie, now a partially settled family man whose PI license and weapon have been pulled. Actually, it’s Victor who convinces Charlie, after an unlikable acquaintance expires near Charlie’s doorstep, to return to form and risk the wrath of Saratoga PD Lt. Frank Hutchins. Dobyns’s style is heavily sardonic, and actor Newbern (Scandal, Friends) smoothly follows his lead in his narration. His voice may be a little too youthful for a hero who spends much of his time reflecting on his advancing years, but it’s also versatile enough to do justice to the novel’s varied humor. A Blue Rider hardcover.

January 2, 2017
Senior citizen Charlie Bradshaw, last seen in 1998’s Saratoga Strongbox, knows the last thing he should be doing is nosing around a homicide investigation, having been stripped of his PI license and gun permit largely through lobbying by the Saratoga, N.Y., police department he once worked for. But it’s tough not to when the victim, inveterate scammer Mickey Martin, is an acquaintance, whose corpse Charlie discovers dumped on the sidewalk in front of his house at the outset of Dobyns’s entertaining 11th series outing. Charlie starts making discreet inquiries, but, when he practically stumbles across a second body, he’s off to the races. Though the department’s working theory of the case regards the murders as somehow connected to a gruesome series of horse-nappings, Charlie suspects a darker, deadlier plot rooted back in the time both victims spent in prison. With a lively pace and plenty of quirky characters (including Charlie’s finagler buddy, Victor Plotz), this entry makes the case that this sleuth definitely shouldn’t be put out to pasture. Agent: Phyllis Westberg, Harold Ober Associates.