Doctor Hate: An Eamon Gold Novel

In Helms’s strong sequel to 2020’s Brittle Karma, San Francisco PI Eamon Gold, who considers himself “a meat and potatoes blue collar private cop,” is asked for help by college professor Brandon Hunt, nicknamed Doctor Hate on Twitter for his militantly anti-PC views (“Sick and tired of seeing so much money spent on Women’s Studies. Where is the Men’s Studies program? After all, the only thing women want to really study is men”). Hunt has been the target of threats for his opinions, culminating in an assault by a group of unidentified men, a crime that the police don’t take seriously. Gold declines to try to identify the assailants, using the excuse that the official inquiry is still open, but agrees to provide protection for his client. Gold comes to believe that Hunt was attacked for other reasons after Hunt reveals that he’s the subject of a blackmail threat over a compromising photo sent via campus mail of his participation in a threesome. The case becomes a murder investigation and takes some unexpected turns en route to a satisfying resolution. Fans of intelligent hard-boiled mysteries will be pleased. (Self-published)