Liquid Smoke
Jeff Shelby. Tyrus (Consortium, dist.), $24.95 (284p) ISBN 978-1-935562-39-9; $15.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-935562-54-2
Shelby's searing third Noah Braddock novel (after 2006's Wicked Break) takes the San Diego surfer and PI into a heartbreaking, life-changing case of loss and discovery. Lawyer Darcy Gill, staunch opponent of capital punishment, wants Braddock to meet death row inmate Russell Simington, who happens to be Braddock's father, whom he's never known. Both best friend Carter Hamm and girlfriend Liz Santangelo, an SDPD homicide detective, advise the reluctant Braddock to see Simington. An emotional meeting at San Quentin with the confessed, unremorseful killer starts Braddock on a rocky journey with only the name Landon Keene as a signpost until the first dead body appears. Braddock gets sucked into the bleak world of casinos and human smuggling and contract murders his father inhabited, with deadly results. Shelby pulls no punches in this raw confrontation between a stone-cold killer and a man pushed beyond the brink. (Aug.)
Details
Reviewed on: 05/30/2011
Genre: Fiction
Open Ebook - 278 pages - 978-1-4405-3267-2
Paperback - 278 pages - 978-1-935562-54-2
Portable Document Format (PDF) - 278 pages - 978-1-4405-3268-9
