Customer Reviews

The Best-Kept Secret: A Milan Jacovich Mystery (Milan Jacovich Mysteries)

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Being a lover of mysteries, I had never heard of Les Roberts until a relative of mine gave me this book. It gripped me from the beginning, introducing Milan Jacovich as not only a good detective but a dedicated friend coming to the aid of someone who once saved his life. As the story progresses and the characters develop, the possibilities of "whodunit" became wider, with the reader never really knowing which character was behind the crimes - yes, the crimes multiplied as the story went on. Once this reader got to the fifth or sixth chapter, putting the book down became difficult. The last hundred pages went very fast as the guilty parties were revealed. This is a good, fast-paced, involving story that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and a central character, who in most ways, has a conscience.

Cleveland private investigator Milan Jacovich owes his life to Dr. Reginald Parker. Strangely it did not occur when the two were grunts in Nam as their paths never crossed in Southeast Asia. Instead, the high school principal rescued the sleuth in an East Cleveland crack house. Milan knows that he owes Reginald so when the educator calls in his chips, the detective responds.

A former student, Jason Crowell attends Sherman College located in the western suburbs. An anonymous group, the Women Warriors, accuse Jason of rape, plastering flyers all over the campus. The media is playing the story. Milan agrees to look into the situation and learns some strange facts. No one knows who are the members of the female activist group. The alleged victim has never surfaced. Jason has always been squeaky clean and his sexual preference tends towards males. As the school administration wants to hang Jason as a sexual predator, a related murder occurs in which the freshman serves as the prime suspect. Milan believes the lad is innocent and plans to uncover the identity of the real killer.

The Milan Jacovich mysteries remain an entertaining treat as they strip away the image of a burning Lake Erie and a rusted city to provide a tour of the real Cleveland. The latest novel, THE BEST-KEPT SECRET, is an interesting tale as Milan investigates the ugly atmosphere of a nearby campus. The story line seems far-fetched that Jason would come under such a blitz attack based on almost nothing. However, the fact that indiviudals serving hard time have been freed due to DNA testing prove otherwise. Les Roberts has kept fresh his down to earth sleuth in a tale that fans will enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

The Best Kept Secret by Les Roberts is a wonderful book. Often I think Les Roberts is the best-kept secret in writing today. The Milan series has been flawless, and The Best Kept Secret is no exception. This book was extremely entertaining and thought provoking. I was captured by the first page and read it in one day. I highly recommend this book and all the rest of the books written by this talented man.

I've read all his books in order up to this one and loved them but I find it to be the weakest yet. It's just not believable. We're supposed to believe that someone put up posters calling a college freshman a rapist and everybody except Milan believes it to be true. NOBODY questions who put up the posters or whether it really happened. They all assume the boy to be guilty. Some emphatically. In the real world SOMEBODY would question who the accuser is or whether it really happened. It just asks too much of us to believe that this could really happen.