Catching Water in a Net [Hardcover]

J. L. Abramo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2001

In this award-winning debut, San Francisco PI Jake Diamond is a hero who plays both sides of the Private Eye street. He is a careless dresser with a sloppy lifestyle and he couldn't keep his marriage from falling apart. But he also epitomizes the best of the modern shamus. He has the kinds of friends a man in his profession needs-jailbirds, mob bosses, and a cop who can surreptitiously run license plate numbers for him.

Jake has been down on his luck lately, barely making enough money to pay the bills and it looks like business might finally be picking up. A woman comes to his office begging him to find her missing husband who has been accused of murder. Jake remembers that his mentor Jimmy Pigeon always says "Whenever I'm asked to locate a missing spouse, the words 'no, but thanks for asking' always come to mind" and almost turns the case down, but then he learns that the murder victim was Jimmy Pigeon.

Determined to discover the identity of Pigeon's killer, Diamond scrambles between Los Angeles and San Francisco following leads that range from weak to delusional. With the help of his trusty and sarcastic assistant, Darlene Roman, compulsive gambler Vinnie "String" Stradivarius, and Italian-American "businessman" Joey Russo, Jake slowly uncovers the motives behind Pigeon's murder.

Jake's adventure has all the components of a great new private eye series-scares, suspense, lots of laughs, a few tears and a big surprise at the end.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

San Franciscan narrator Jake Diamond easily fits the traditional hard-boiled, whiskey-in-a-drawer, office-on-a-shoestring private eye mold. And the cryptic, hammered-out prose accentuates his dilemma: find the man who allegedly killed Jake's former mentor in Los Angeles. Jake finds his man but too late. Now he extends his search to the guy who wanted to purchase the dead pair's Ex-Con.com website business. The obligatory sultry ex-wife, characters with names like Willie Dogtail and Vinnie Stradivarius, and picturesque thugs complicate the plot and add to the atmosphere. Winner of the St. Martin's 2000 award for best first private eye novel.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Jimmy Pigeon is murdered, and his former student in the PI business, Jake Diamond, feels compelled to find out why. Diamond quickly discovers that Pigeon was in a business squabble with his partner, Harry Harding, about whether to sell their Web bounty-hunting business. When Harding is also murdered, Diamond becomes a suspect. Forced to use his Mob contacts to protect himself, Diamond goes on the lam, running between San Francisco and Los Angeles as he continues to search for the real murderer. First novelist Abramo has the hard-boiled private eye formula down pat--perhaps even too pat. Diamond exhibits every PI cliche in the book, from the bottle in his desk drawer to his antagonistic relationship with the police. On the other hand, the novel is solidly written and captures the mood of the genre. Its selection as the St. Martin's/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Private Eye Novel of 2000 seems a stretch, but the series does bear watching. Gary Niebuhr
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (October 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031228232X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312282325
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,045,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Detective Mystery, December 12, 2001

By 

Carrie Phillips (Columbia, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catching Water in a Net (Hardcover)

Abramo has created a tough piece of fiction that won the 2000 Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Award for Best First Private Eye Novel. "Catching Water in a Net" is a tightly knit, no-holds-barred novel that catches the reader and holds him through a deluge of murder, betrayal and suspense. The book's 230 pages take off with a woman's entry into the private investigator's office. Evelyn Harding needs P.I. Jake Diamond to find her husband, Harry. Harry Harding is on the lam because he's suspected of murdering his business partner and Jake's mentor, L.A. private eye Jimmy Pigeon.
So the case begins. It's personal for Jake, who epitomizes every hard-boiled private eye cliché: He keeps a bottle in his desk and a pack of Camels in his pocket, and his saucy receptionist keeps his San Francisco-based business on the edge of survival. Jake is shoddy in dress and in lifestyle, and his love life is tragic and distant. He has all the right friends, from mob bosses and inmates to cops, and everything in between. When Harding turns up dead, Jake becomes a suspect and has to use every friendship and connection in San Francisco and L.A. to keep himself out of jail until he can clear his name and find Pigeon's killer. He's forced to request help from two mob bosses, dodge the strong men of another and even go to his ex-wife and her family for help, a humiliating move for Jake. While the case and the characters set the pace of the novel, the most intriguing and engaging aspect is the emerging relationship-that-should-have-been between Jake Diamond and Jimmy Pigeon.
As the case moves on, Jake finds out things he should have but was never inclined to know about the man he silently revered. Jimmy Pigeon took Jake under his wing and turned him from a struggling actor into a private eye. While the two men were friends, the 400 miles between their respective cities and Jake's personal hang-ups kept them from being as close as they should have been. Jake comes to realize he should have been more of a friend to his mentor and teacher and begins to treat the case as the last thing he can do to make up for the time that was lost between them.
Abramo treats the situation with just the right amounts of tenderness and unforgiving candor. Jake knows he messed up - that's why he must try so hard to make amends, even though he knows that time can never be regained. But, as Jake's ex-wife tells him, it's "a step in the right direction."
Abramo has certainly taken a step in the right direction in the creation of this character. The novel sparkles throughout with the wit of an intelligent author who obviously knows the ins and outs of his genre. The story knows it's hard-boiled private eye fiction. It stays on course and never strays into the dangerous realms of symbolism and literary fiction. That dedication to his art makes Abramo's offering that much more compelling and worthy of notice. This is the first in a series of Jake Diamond, P.I., novels, and he promises to be as captivating a private eye as P.D. James' Adam Dalgleish or Janet Evanonvich's Stephanie Plum.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart and humorous debut., November 24, 2001

By 

Stan Ford (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catching Water in a Net (Hardcover)

In a time when crime fiction has become more and more serious and dismal, J. L. Abramo has offered a charming alternative. Jake Diamond, ex-actor and San Francisco private investigator, is reminiscent of the classic 40's PI - while reminding us also that when Chandler created Philip Marlowe the mold was broken. More over-easy than hard-boiled, Diamond is faced with a question more essential than who killed his friend and mentor, Jimmy Pigeon. Jake's dilemma is coming to terms with Pigeon's failure to reach out to Diamond for help. The action here is fast-paced, the characters colorful, the dialogue authentic and intelligent. The sense is that we are being briefly introduced to personalities who we will come to know better in future outings. The reader is left looking forward to hearing more about Joey Russo, Sonny the Chin, Vinnie Strings, Darlene Roman, Sally French, Johnny Boy Carlucci and, certainly, Jake Diamond himself. Abramo appears to be slyly hinting at his talent for the genre, setting the stage for fun rides to follow. Standing alone, "Catching Water in a Net" is a very satisfying entertainment. It is also an overture to a promising new PI series from a fresh and talented new voice.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excting mystery, September 18, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Catching Water in a Net (Hardcover)

Jake Diamond owns Diamond Investigations, a San Francisco based private investigative firm. In fact, Jake works as the companys only investigator with an office assistant keeping the case records (as few as they are) and his tie clean. Based on the recommendation of a friend who once hired Jake, Evelyn Harding wants to retain the sleuth to look for her missing husband Harry, vanished for four days.

Not interested beyond making a quick buck, his interest soon peaks when he learns that Harry was a partner of Jimmy Pigeon, Jakes mentor and teacher in the private investigative business. Jake learns that LAPD believes Harry Killed Jimmy with the motive being an argument over whether to sell their million dollar net-based business. Because of the identity of the victim, Jake drives to LA allegedly to find Harry, but in reality to insure Jimmy's killer receives justice.

With this debut novel, JL Abramo became the winner of the St. Martins Press PWA Award for Best First Private Eye Novel. Sub-genre fans, who read CATCHING WATER IN A NET, will agree with that assessment as the engaging story line is amusing yet somewhat coarse mostly due to the antics of the lead protagonist. Jake is a wonderful lead character who the audience will find enticing and demand more of his adventures. Using the homicide of his revered guru as the impetus for Jakes involvement cleverly allows readers to learn more about the hero while the plot flows forward. This novel lives up to the award it already won.

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