Doin' Dirty

Rating:
Summary: A Five Star Mystery About the Lone Star State
Review: As a mystery novelist with my first book in its initial release, I genuinely admire Howard Swindle's second Jeb Quinlin mystery, DOIN' DIRTY. While it features Quinlin, a recovering alcoholic detective, and his partner, Paul McCarren, investigating the death of an investigative reporter with an Eastern Establishment background, Swindle's most impressive strength comes from his knowledge of Texas. He renders the ambience of his setting as few other authors do. His plot is also swiftly-paced with the powerful Colter family apparently involved in the crime. The sub-plot involving Jeb's relationship with Madeline, also a recovering alcoholic, is given significant space. All in all, DOIN' DIRTY is a fine book, deserving of notice and attention.

Rating:
Summary: Quinlin's Back and Even Better.....
Review: Howard Swindle is back and his second novel of this series is even better than his highly acclaimed first thriller, Jitter Joint. Dallas homicide detective and recovering alcoholic, Jeb Quinlin and his partner, Paul McCarren are assigned the murder investigation of a young, ivy-league newspaper reporter, Richmond Carlisle. It seems Carlisle was onto something big, career making big and was playing his card very close to the vest. With the help of his many well placed sources, Jeb traces Carlisle's steps back to his own hometown of Comanche Gap and the very powerful and prominent Colter family and discovers crime and corruption at its highest levels.....Doin' Dirty is a fast paced, edge of your seat page turner, full of great realistic characters and vivid, riveting scenes. Mr Swindle's writing, is tense and gritty, with a real ear for dialogue. As an Edgar nominated true-crime writer and Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter, his expertise on police investigations and the newpaper business adds real credibility to the story. This is a very compelling, suspenseful novel, with a climax and ending that will leave you breathless. Doin' Dirty is a MUST read for all mystery/thriller lovers.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite
Review: I really liked Jitter Joint, which is why I bought Doin' Dirty. Unfortunately, this book just doesn't meet the standard Swindle let with Jitter Joint. The plot is interesting enough but there are problems. One is the pacing. This book just doesn't have the kind of narrative drive that drags a reader along breathlessly to the conclusion. Another is the multiple viewpoints. Switching points of view can often be beneficial to a book but in this instance it often proved either to be of no real value or it simply slowed things down.

When he writes about the demons of alcoholism, Swindle's right up there; it's good, true stuff and reads well. The same is true in the depictions of the Vietnam vets; these characters are real and completely believable. The bad guys seem interchangeable, sort of like Jabba The Hut sliced up into three or four characters. They all have flat, dead eyes; they all speak in the same voice. They're all uncaring monsters with no discernible differences to distinguish them, one from the other. The "detecting" part of this book suffers from unevenness and, as I said above, slow pacing.

On the nitpicking front, almost every man in this book is described as being at least six-foot-two or taller. Are there no short men in Texas? Also, the proofreading isn't what it could have been and there are too many typos which, in some cases, actually alter the meaning of what's written.

I'm holding out hope that with his next effort Swindle will be back on form. In the meantime, for those new to this author's work, I'd strongly recommend reading Jitter Joint. It's far more indicative of the author's abilities.