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Clutching at Straws

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So here I am, it's nearly two in the morning, I leave a Jazz club on Bleecker Street because the cat on xylophone (vibes, man) is giving me a funny look. I grab a Sunday Times, carry it into Café Dante, and work on the crossword over a double espresso. They've got Joe Franklin on the radio, Memory Lane, and Joe is talking with this guy J. L. Abramo who writes Private Eye novels. I write it down in the margin of the magazine section. Following afternoon, I walk to the nearest bookstore, I won't name names, and find "Clutching at Straws", a signed copy if you can believe it. It's raining in New York City, which is all it ever does lately, and I read the thing in one sitting. You want a review, go to Publishers Weekly. You want advice, read this book.

Clutching at Straws, J. L. Abramos follow up to Catching Water in a Net, takes Jake Diamond into new territories, geographically and emotionally, the returning reader learning more about Diamond as Jake learns more about himself. Jakes client, Lefty Wright, is a small-time burglar charged with murder. Only an idiot would fail to recognize Leftys innocence, so why are the San Francisco police and District Attorney behaving like idiots? The question becomes as important to Jakes investigation as his attempt to clear his client. Diamonds search for answers takes him across California and across the Rocky Mountains, running up against a wall of puzzles, dark secrets, cover-ups, blind ambitions, revenge and the gray areas regarding degree of guilt and appropriate punishment. Returning to help in the cause are Joey Russo, Vinnie Strings, Sonny the Chin and Jakes irrepressible associate, Darlene Roman. Abramos blend of pulp, noir and smart humor proves once again that a mystery novel can be a tribute to the classic Private Eye yarn without taking it all too seriously. Clutching at Straws is a fast-moving, entertaining ride, while at the same time a heartfelt examination of the responsibilities of parents and their children. The reader could hardly hope for more, beyond the wish for the speedy arrival of the next Jake Diamond installment.

In Abramo's second novel "Clutching at Straws", we witness a story and a mystery better than the first. A prominent judge is found murdered and a well-spoken burgler is arrested for murder. The twist: he didn't do it, and he hires hard-drinking, "Monte Cristo" reading P.I Jake Diamond to find out who the real killer is. Diamond starts to uncover the feud the late judge had with the leading candidate for the District Attorney's office, but then the bodies start to pile up as someone doesn't want Jake is get to the truth about what the judge had on Lowell Ryder, the D.A candidate. Eventually with the help of Chance Folsom aka Chance Ryder and a woman in hiding, Jake discovers the truth. Great quotes and parallels with Monte Cristo. "Until God deigns to reveal the future to mankind, the best words of wisdom are wait and hope". I think that's the quote from Monte Cristo.

Vic Vigoda hires Lefty Wright to steal a package from the safe of Judge Chancellor. Lefty grabs the job as the pay is great, $15K for under fifteen minutes to perform an easy heist. However when Lefty enters the bedroom with the safe, the murdered body of the judge greets him. Almost immediately two cops charge into the house and arrest Lefty for killing Chancellor.

Lefty knows he is already in deep trouble, but adding to his woes is that the DA is running for office and sees this case as an easy media victory to further his ambitions. Lefty asks San Francisco private investigator Jake Diamond to learn why Vic would set him up to take the fall. Jake makes inquiries, but mostly concentrates on who owned a valuable Rolex found near the body. As he tries to learn the identity of the owner, he wonders about the motive. As he digs deeper into the case, bodies pile up as someone is bumping off anyone remotely related and potentially able to provide information that could free Lefty.

Though readers will need a calculator to keep score of the corpses, fans of action-packed murder mysteries will enjoy this tale. The story line is loaded with non-stop hyper energy, as the audience will compute the correlation between alcohol drinking and homicides. Fans of mass homicide investigative tales will want to follow Diamond as he steps over bodies while making the rounds of the streets of San Francisco.

Harriet Klausner

Lefty Wright loves his work, and Lefty knows a piece of cake when its offered. Fifteen grand in cool cash to get into a safe that he could crack with both arms tied behind his back. The house is empty, the wall safe is in an upstairs bedroom, and as Lefty slips in through a kitchen window he figures to be out again in less than twenty minutes. Instead, fifteen minutes later, Lefty finds himself face down on the bedroom floor, his arms handcuffed behind his back, surrounded by police, and nose-to-nose with a prominent San Francisco Criminal Court Justice whos dead body lies underneath the bed with a large knife in the chest. Lefty tries convincing the SFPD that the Judge was stabbed and stashed before he came on the scene, but no one is listening. The police are too excited about cracking a high profile murder case in record time to pay attention. When Lefty Wright finally gets his one phone call, he calls the one person who he hopes will hear him out. Jake Diamond. In his second outing, the easy going private investigator attempts to prove Leftys innocence while investigating a recent kidnapping and a fifteen year old homicide which may or may not be related to Leftys dilemma. Traveling from San Francisco to the avocado fields of central California to the sound stages of a film shoot in Denver, Diamonds suspects seem to have one thing in common; they are in no condition to talk by the time Jake gets to them. J. L. Abramo has provided a fast-moving, humorous escapade which more than meets the expectations promised by his first award-winning Jake Diamond novel, Catching Water in a Net.

After the disastrous CATCHING WATER IN A NET, Mr. Abramo seems to have learned something. This time the cast of characters isn't so confusing (though it helps that they are listed at the front of the book), there's an interesting plot that not only makes sense this time but is really pretty exciting, and the description and sense of place are strong. Abramo does an admirable job of twisting some of the tried-and-true standards of the genre into something we can enjoy reading, and the characters are more than talking heads. I even started to like some of these guys: the educated burglar who gets framed, the never-do-well kid that Diamond employs just to keep him out of trouble (who turns out to be smarter than Diamond - or I - would have given him credit for), the wayward woman, the ex, the ex-father-in-law. . .

Abramo creates an intriguing story line from the first hit-you-in-the-face chapter to the very end. The story doesn't bog down like the first one, the dialogue and action are crisp and true.

Skip the first one and go straight to this. You won't be sorry.

In J. L. Abramo's first novel, "Catching Water in A Net", San Francisco private eye Jake Diamond carried a worn-out copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" in place of a .38 Special. Diamond is back in "Clutching at Straws", this time packing "The Count of Monte Cristo" concealed in his jacket pocket. Jake, ex-actor and lover of the classics, operates on the belief that art imitates life and holds clues to human behavior, noble and villainous. Abramo operates on the notion that life often imitates art and he offers, once again, a masterful blend of human tragedy and human comedy that kept this reader holding her breath and holding her sides.