Black Boat Dancing (Con Maknazpy) (Volume 2)
‘So you are bringing the package in now, Maknazpy, right?’ Cora said.
A blue light and siren scattered the darkness behind us. Yasmin looked for me in the mirror – okay, just an ambulance.
‘Not yet, Cora,’ I said. ‘Couple of things I want in place first.’
I could feel the frost on Cora’s breath.
And, so, here we are in the realm of tough guys doing tough guy things against other tough guys. That description is not intended to disparage, nor should it. There is something about author Gerard Cappa’s style, as well as his hero Con Maknazpy, that carries echoes of Dashiell Hammett and the Continental Op. In the matter of Black Boat Dancing, while Hammett’s creation worked for the Continental Detective Agency, Maknazpy truly is continental in the plot’s scope.
This being the second book featuring Maknazpy, there is a certain degree of house-cleaning to be done initially. He has retired since his previous adventure, but lost his wife and son to another man. So when his tart-tongued handler, Cora, recruits him for a dangerous mission, well why not? So off our man goes to first Portugal and later China. Maknazpy is on the trail of bad guys who have secret information regarding U.S. financial support of Middle East terrorists. Anyone who has followed the grim tale of the origins of ISIS will know that this is very much fact-based fiction and Black Boat Dancing is all the better for it.
Cappa avoids the trap of many a thriller author in managing to intelligently describe the plot facet of computer hacking without burying the reader in a landfill of gee whiz gadget geek talk. This grateful reader sends his thanks. Beyond that, all the classic elements of the detective crime thriller are there: I’ve already mentioned the smart-mouthed dame in Cora, and there are, of course, nightclubs, les femmes fatale, and bodies scattered across the pages like raspberries on your morning cornflakes.
Black Boat Dancing is a cracking good tale and will liven up any tablet device on which it is read.
Author | |
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Star Count | 4/5 |
Format | eBook |
Page Count | 276 pages |
Publisher | Pipers Head |
Publish Date | 05-May-2014 |
ISBN | 9780957282933 |
Bookshop.org | Buy this Book |
Issue | December 2014 |
Category | Mystery, Crime, Thriller |
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