Street Level

Rating:
Summary: Dropping to Street Level
Review: Bob Truluck's first novel is a fast-paced detective thriller. A gay millionaire's sperm is stolen and injected into an unknown girl, the demand is simple- money or his baby dies. In comes Sloan, a man of the streets and a PI with a reputation to find the girl and put an end to a chain of gruesome murders which have been turning up, regarding the case. The novel has its share of action and mystery, and things get very nasty with the involvement of Latino gangs. For a debut, Street Level is a fine starting point for any new author and hopefully Truluck knows how to follow this one up correctly. It would've been much better if this book was thicker, because it was entirely interesting and original, so much that it shouldn't have finished so speedily. And, any Private Eye who admits he belongs out their on street level is a winner in my opinion; Sloan is a likeable character. A nice piece of reading for fans of this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Simply too profane for my taste
Review: I selected the book based on it's listing among the best first mysteries in several of the mystery awards. And while I give it two stars for hints of underlying promise, I gave up after 70 pages. I only give up on about 2% of the books I start so there has to be something pretty wrong (for me - 40 something female avid reader). In this case, it's profanity. Now I've been know to drop a juicy four letter word once in awhile. However, I started to be annoyed with the constant profanity in this book early on. Then I started looking for a page with a profanity - and I couldn't find one in the next twenty pages that I read. Bottom line -- the profanity so distracted me from the plot that I simply could not get into the book.

Rating:
Summary: A star is born in my favorite genre!
Review: In this initial outing, Bob Truluck's Duncan Sloan will remind the discerning detective-genre aficionado of Parker's early Spenser offerings...except that Sloan is hipper, smarter, and a bit more wry than Spenser ever was. On top of that, Bob Truluck has somehow managed to come up with a genuinely original premise for this story, an achievement that I haven't seen in years. If you appreciate an excellent hard-boiled detective novel, then you'll want this one on your bookshelf. In fact, the only problem with Street Level is that its sequel isn't already waiting on the shelf for me to buy.