We here at Crimespree have a close relationship with Down And Out Books. We think they are the bee’s knees (Just what does that mean??). So it is not inaccurate to say we are a bit biased towards them.
But we are pretty damned pumped to hear that J.L. Abramo has come on board for CHASING CHARLIE CHAN, his next book.
CATCHING WATER IN A NET, J. L. Abramo’s St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Award for Best First Private Eye Novel debut, introduced Jake Diamond, San Francisco private investigator, as well as a character named Jimmy Pigeon, who was killed before the novel began. Now, Pigeon has been brought back to life in the prequel to the Jake Diamond series.
Lenny Archer had more than a fair share of tough times and hard knocks, but he had finally decided to stay in the game rather than cash in his chips.
Then, two late-night intruders at the Private Investigation office of Archer and Pigeon violently take the choice of life over death out of Lenny’s hands.
Jimmy Pigeon is determined to discover who killed his friend and partner. He may have to learn what became of the actor who portrayed Charlie Chan in the thirties, and who assassinated a charismatic mobster in the late-forties, before he can identify Archer’s killers.
LAPD Lieutenant Ray Boyle is not anxious to get tied up in the Chinese fire drill that is the Archer murder case, but he is far less inclined to get anywhere near the question of where a former Heisman Trophy winning football player was on an infamous night in June 1994.
Pigeon and Boyle become reluctant allies, sharing little in common beside a mutual hope that Major League Baseball can thwart a players’ strike and the bad guys learn crime doesn’t pay.
J. L. Abramo was born in the seaside paradise of Brooklyn, New York on Raymond Chandler’s fifty-ninth birthday. A long-time educator, arts journalist, film and stage actor and theatre director, Abramo is the author of the Jake Diamond private eye mysteries CATCHING WATER IN A NET, CLUTCHING AT STRAWS, COUNTING TO INFINITY, and CHASING CHARLIE CHAN, as well as the stand-alone crime thriller GRAVESEND.
CHASING CHARLIE CHAN will be released in E-book and Trade paperback formates in September.
