Reviewed by Chris
Longmuir
This is the third Boss MacTavin mystery book by Reb MacRath,
but it was the first one I had read. When writing a book it is often advised to
start with a good hook, and this one had a really shocking hook. It started
with Boss MacTavin in a meeting with a mafia don after receiving a hatbox
containing his fiancee’s head, and I wondered if this was an indication of the
type of book this was going to be.
Once I got past the shock factor I realised this was a book
which in the golden age of crime fiction would have been called hard-boiled. It
had a private investigator or PI, plus mafia thugs, a black widow, crooked
cops, and plenty of violent action.
Boss MacTavin undertakes an investigation for Don Sal
Vittale, a San Francisco mafia don. The Don wants him to look into the murder
of his niece’s husband in Charlotte, but the problem for Boss is that the man
accused of the killing is the son of Don Cordalini, an old adversary. The
investigation starts off a series of action filled and violent events.
Boss MacTavin was an interesting main character. He’s a
tough guy, with tough looks, and a battle scarred body. He also only has one
eye, the result of a previous violent confrontation. The book was well written,
the descriptions were excellent, and the atmosphere suited the story. Part one
was action packed and typical of the hard-boiled style, the pace was fast, and
violence proliferated. The pace seemed to change in part two, there was more
planning and slightly less action, and seemed to become a sting novel which Boss MacTavin termed a Correction. Although this part had less action it had more
mystery, and I was left guessing what the Correction was going to be, and along
the way there were several twists. Needless to say, by the end all was clear.
I liked this book on several levels. Firstly, I liked the
hard-boiled style of part one, which satisfied all the expectations of this
style of book. The characters were good and realistic and played their roles
well. The writing was atmospheric and descriptive, and the action scenes were
also realistic. In part two, I like the mystery element and the twists, and
when the sting finally took place it was a surprise.
Reading this book has made me want to read the first two
Boss MacTavin books, although this book is a stand-alone and is perfectly
understandable without reading the previous two.
Chris Longmuir
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