Rating: 
Summary: CANT WAIT FOR THE DUTCH!!
Review: Roberts always fascinates me with his ability to make Milan hard-boiled and intelligent at the same time. As this series goes on, Milan is becoming more and more mature and culpable for his actions and the actions of others as well. I have personal knowledge of the Slovenian Community and although he is a transplanted Clevelander, Roberts has made good use of his resources here to project a very believeable character. The moral dilemmas he presented in THE INDIAN SIGN still have me uncomfortable and undecided after 8 months. Roberts is becoming more confident in his success with this series as he writes each book and relies not so much on the shoot 'em up and punch 'em out as he does on making Milan Jacovich a very believeable character. And if anyone knows anything about characters, it's Roberts.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Characters; Gripping Moral Dilemmas
Review: The good stuff:This book features a very strong, well-defined, quite likeable private-eye. His personality shines through in every chapter. And he's not too cynical or angry for my tastes. He's just--very stubborn. As for the interwoven plots, plus romantic subplots (more than one, if you count all the flirting), splendidly realistic dialogue and reactions from Jacovich fueled story material that should leave a reader wondering what he or she would do, as Jacovich does, at every step. But: The only spot where the novel takes a bit of reduction in my rating is in the ending. I had hoped for a stronger whodunit element for at least one of the puzzles presented in the book. If Les Roberts could apply--or has applied!--all of this terrific writing to a real "Puzzle for the Ages", then I'm in for a treat sometime in the future, because I will definitely revisit this author, oh, at least once or twice. The only other Les Roberts book that I have in fact read was Pepper Pike when it first came out, and it was arguably the better entry, because of the trickier whodunit content.
Rating:
Summary: An amibitious undertaking
Review: This is a superb ex-cop turned private eye mystery, meeting all three criteria for excellence: ATMOSPHERE--The reader can feel the shivery, wet February of Cleveland; inhale the sweet-smelling ethnic restaurants; sense the almost tangible atmosphere of the city. Without the proper ambience, even the best mystery would fall flat. CHARACTERS--The detective and all he meets are well-drawn and believlable. I never doubted for a second. PLOT--There are two distinct plots, actually, that eventually merge with a common theme. The ending is no great surprise, alas, but it works well enough and shouldn't be considered a negative. To this fine mix, Les Roberts has added the spice of uncertainty on the part of his hero. Is he doing the right thing, and will he ever know if he did the right thing? That's what transforms this whodunit into fine literature. Most mystery novels simply never question the morality of it all.
Rating:
Summary: Just about perfect
Review: This is a superb ex-cop turned private eye mystery, meeting all three criteria for excellence: ATMOSPHERE--The reader can feel the shivery, wet February of Cleveland; inhale the sweet-smelling ethnic restaurants; sense the almost tangible atmosphere of the city. Without the proper ambience, even the best mystery would fall flat. CHARACTERS--The detective and all he meets are well-drawn and believlable. I never doubted for a second. PLOT--There are two distinct plots, actually, that eventually merge with a common theme. The ending is no great surprise, alas, but it works well enough and shouldn't be considered a negative. To this fine mix, Les Roberts has added the spice of uncertainty on the part of his hero. Is he doing the right thing, and will he ever know if he did the right thing? That's what transforms this whodunit into fine literature. Most mystery novels simply never question the morality of it all.
Rating:
Summary: An amibitious undertaking
Review: With each new book, Roberts seems to get wordier and wordier and more cerebral and P.C. instead of "hard-boiled" as he claims to be. I liked the older Milan books better and wonder if his new one, "The Dutch" will cause me to read with a thesaurus nearby. He also had Milan eating dinner twice in one evening--once in Chagrin Falls, and a few hours later at the Inn at Turner's Mill in Hudson with an associate. I'm a big fan of Roberts, he is a very intelligent and aware person and an all around nice guy-mostly. For a transplanted Californian, he treats our city very well. I'm happy he gave up the Saxon novels for the Milan ones. They're a lot better read.
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