Customer Reviews

The Cleveland Connection: A Milan Jacovich Mystery

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A lot of people used to live in Cleveland. I'm one of them. I go back sometimes. The city I grew up in is gone. But there is still something there. And Les Roberts seems to capture it --- the place is pretty simple, pretty prosaic, pretty worn out and frayed at the edges, but still a decent place full of decent people, some of whom don't get along too well. His man, Milan, the p.i., feels like Cleveland --- divorced, often loveless, beaten down a bit, not making it very well a lot of days, but hanging in there because that's all there is to do. And occasionally doing something more than hanging in there --- like solving a kind of obvious murder a bit slower than the reader will. That's Cleveland, a bit slow, a bit of a laggard, but well-meaning. The place won't excite you, the people won't excite you, but they're not bad folk to hang out with of an evening, when you have nothing more gripping --- kind of like Cleveland on a Wednesday night, not a place you'd want to be if you could be in NYC, LA, SF, DC, etc...but tolerable if that's where you happen to be....like this book....

This is a good crime novel set in Cleveland, OH - probably late '90's. Have several Cleveland co-workers here that say Roberts knows his town. In fact am handing off a copy to a friend from there who is of Slovenian/German Ohio ancestry. Normally I am a Paretsky/Chicago crime authors buff.

Milio is Slovenian/American - the characters in the book are Serbian/American so it references the news of today on some of the background material with a part of the plot tied to WWII actions in the then Yugoslavia.

It moves well, Milo Jacovich is not a superhero of a detective but has all the buddies and side characters that any good mystery should have - to help flesh out the plot. Cleveland sounds like New York City on a smaller scale but with similar ethnic turf in the neighborhoods woven into the plot.

I read it in 1 night - albeit a long one - but it kept my interest up and I will buy more "Milo" books. This would adapt well to a TV movie, too, I think.

Buy it!