The Dallas Deception: A Jack Kyle Mystery [Hardcover]

Richard Abshire (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1992

Hired to find and retrieve a video tape that depicts a sex act between a friend's wealthy lover's underage daughter and a man, Jack Kyle follows his leads into the dark corners of the girl's family. 12,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

He drinks, smokes, lives out of his office and is always seriously short of cash. Square in the tradition of down-and-out PIs, Abshire's Dallas detective Jack Kyle (introduced in Dallas Drop ) is also a sensitive, modern guy, not yet 40, as up-to-date as the advanced technology employed by the deranged genius at the heart of this hard-to-credit but deftly handled plot. As a favor to an old Dallas PD pal, Kyle investigates the keyhole porn scam by which teenage Liz, filmed while having sex, is being blackmailed. Kyle finds the tapes and roughs up the filmmaker, but shortly thereafter discovers Liz back at the lout's apartment, naked and stoned, the young man's bloody corpse still warm in the bathroom. Getting the girl out of there just before the cops arrive, he takes her to her grandfather, called The Doctor, and begins to unravel the tangled history of warped, mind-controlling experiments that have led to murder and other evils. Savvy and reasonable even in fairly bizarre setting, Kyle is a pleasant, unpredictable companion for an evening's read.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Impecunious series PI Jack Kyle quickly collects all copies of a porn video featuring an unwitting teenage girl; unfortunately, someone murders the video's producer and frames the girl. Kyle jeopardizes his license in an attempt to prove her innocence while artfully dodging Vietnamese thugs, the girl's spaced-out mom, a weird but wealthy scientist, and his own approaching 39th birthday. The vigorous plot moves smoothly against the Dallas background until the introduction of some incredible experimentation, but series fans probably won't care.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 299 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (July 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688107990
• ISBN-13: 978-0688107994
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,619,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some deception, but mostly aggravated lying!, November 17, 1998

By 

Marion White (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dallas Deception: A Jack Kyle Mystery (Hardcover)

Old style detective writing with some "generation X" characters. Jack is tasked with helping out a friend. This favor for a friend leads Jack to dirty sex, drugs, violence, lies, murder, conspiracy, manipulation, double-cross, an Asian gang, revenge, cyperspace, and a measure of probity. How Jack prevails over it is interesting and fun. Sort of a cross between James Rockford and an Elmore Leonard (maybe "Get Shorty") character. I enjoyed the fast pace which reminded me of a "Spencer" novel. Unlike Spencer and perhaps more like Rockford, Jack is broke and doesn't have a love life, but this does not keep Richard Abshire from giving us a manifest sexual subject-matter.