Personal Reasons

Leonard Diggs remains San Diego’s best detective despite working with a slow partner, John Stall. After solving a case involving a missing boy that was considered dead, mayor Randy Pelton asks Diggs to join his reelection campaign. Diggs refuses but suffers a suspension—a forced ten-day vacation in Las Vegas—while his partner gets promoted instead. Eventually, Diggs finds his sister, Claire, involved in something sinister after her suspicious call and discovering her house had been burned down. His search to find out more about Claire leads Diggs to discover a fraud case involving her and some secrets about the murder of his mother. Is Diggs actually ready to face the truth?

Personal Reasons centers on an investigation by a celebrated detective to uncover the truth behind his sister’s embezzling and his mother’s murder. Meandering through themes of crime, fraud, a bad breakup, politics, family, loss, and more, the story packs something new to discover at every turn. The way Michael Botz hides the hints cleverly and links the story with its numerous twists and turns is simply brilliant and must have taken some careful thinking and great attention to detail to put it all together.

The characters in the book are well-developed with interesting backstories and memorable personalities. Diggs is a smooth jazz fan who was a professional baseball player before he got his knee injury and lost his career. Though he hears some nasty rumors about his sister, he still hopes to find some good in her. I learned to actually get to know people and their stories before concluding about them.

As much as I liked some things about the book, I thought it wasn’t exciting enough. The discoveries and the investigation got a bit tiring after a while, and I wished there was a more engaging relationship or discord amidst them.

I liked how the descriptive words had me fully present in the scenes. Imagining things like an “eight-foot-tall lizard sculpture” that has an “interesting retro appeal” removed my attention from my environment completely; it was quite therapeutic. Though the book employs a third-person perspective, the protagonist is considerably introspective and the book is mostly focused on his activities.

I love books that promote positive values and sticking with them regardless of how unpopular they are like Diggs does when confronted by the politician.

Personal Reasons is filled with many shocking surprises; the type that made me pause and exclaim several times. Though I wished the book was more exciting, I believe the writer has is skillful at linking multiple aspects of a story together and would like to read more of his books.