Five Star First Edition Mystery - Maitland [Hardcover]

James Patrick Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Five Star First Edition Mystery | Publication Date: January 21, 2005

Evan Maitland is co-owner and operator of Collette's Antiques, an upscale furniture store in Chicago. He's also a bail enforcement agent/bounty hunter. On a cold January night, a bail bondsman hires Maitland to find Barry McDermott, a lawyer charged with statutory rape. What appears to be a simple retrieval turns into something far more complicated. Maitland is shot in a gunfight and kills a man in self defense. After recovering from his injury, Maitland returns to Chicago and tries to put his life back together. But someone wants Maitland dead. With assassins on all sides, and only a determined Chicago policewoman to back him up, Maitland has to play this new game by his rules if he wants to stay alive.

James Patrick Hunt presently practices law in Oklahoma City. (20041201)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Evan Maitland is a former Chicago cop making his way as a specialty furniture dealer in the Windy City. Readers hoping for a kindred soul to Lovejoy, Jonathan Gash's charming antique-dealing, crime-solving British rogue, will find a very different but equally appealing sort of bloke in the pages of this knockout first novel. Maitland walked away from law enforcement but not adrenalin. He supplements his furniture income as a bounty hunter, tracking down bail skips. His latest runner is Barry McDermott, an attorney charged with statutory rape ("She looked 25!"). What Maitland doesn't know is that a Jamaican posse is also on McDermott's tail; he has nearly a million dollars of their drug money. Maitland and the Jamaicans find their prey at the same time; the ruckus leaves two dead and Maitland minus one lung. The surviving Jamaicans want Maitland dead. The remainder of the tale finds a diminished Maitland dodging Jamaican hit attempts and trying to convince a corrupt Chicago cop that he's not aligned with the Jamaican posse. This is an extraordinary debut that harkens back to Elmore Leonard's classic City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (1999). Great modern noir; don't miss it, and clamor for more. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"...is an action-packed mystery novel ranging from Chicago to Oklahoma City. Author James Patrick Hunt entertains with a story that includes intriguing and often dangerous characters."
--Oklahoman, January 2005 (Doody Enterprises )

"First-timer Hunt mixes his pitches expertly, mixing hard sliders (the incompetent and sometimes venal cops convinced that Maitland?s working with the Jamaicans who are trying to kill him) with the occasional curveball.."
-- Kirkus Reviews (December 2004) (Kirkus Review )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Five Star; 1 edition (January 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594142726
• ISBN-13: 978-1594142727
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,416,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific urban noir, November 20, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Five Star First Edition Mystery - Maitland (Hardcover)

Closing in on forty, Evan Maitland is co-owner of Collette's Antiques, a store that specializes in seventeenth and eighteenth century French and Italian furnishings. In spite of this being a younger man's game; Evan also works as a bounty hunter for Chicago bails bondsman Charlie Mead. Charlie asks Evan to bring back lawyer Barry McDermott who skipped the Windy City with a $300, K bond to free him from jail as he is charged with statutory rape having sex with a fifteen years old.

Evan tracks Barry to Oklahoma City, but before he can bring the jumper home, the Jamaican Raetown posse of "Jim" Collins arrives to kill Barry and to recover the $800,000 he failed to launder. In a shootout, Barry and a Jamaican Richard Lawes die while Evan is wounded. Back home recuperating, Jim informs his other two posse members they must clean up the Oklahoma City mess by killing the surviving witness.

MAITLAND is a terrific urban noir starring a tough in your face hero. He shows his grit and intelligence whenever he is chasing a jumper. The exciting story line is action-packed caused by the star; Evan is at his best bringing in those who have fled their court date rather than the exhilarating High Noon showdown with the posse. Hopefully, Maitland ignores his promise to his antiques partner Bianca to concentrate on their business and continues to chase down skippers. An anthology of his cases would make quite a plum for suspense readers.

Harriet Klausner

3.0 out of 5 stars Chicago-Still the Mob-town, July 23, 2007

By 

Charlean Souligne (Port St. Lucie, Fl. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maitland (Paperback)

This is a fast-paced novel set in and around Chicago. The main character, Evan Maitland used to be a cop, but circumstances made him "retire" and become an antiques dealer. Go figure. However, he still keeps his body in shape, and his skills as an investigator honed by doing the occasional bounty hunter job for a friend who is a bail bondsman.

In this episode, Maitland is after an attorney who skipped out on his bond. His crime: on the surface it was diddling with an underage girl, but we all know the plot cannot be that simple. The lawyer is also tied in with the Jamaican mob out of Chicago, and even when he flees to Oklahoma with a ton of their money, they track him down.

Its Maitland's job to bring the attorney back, but he doesn't get the chance, since the lawyer gets murdered in Oklahoma. Now the mob is after Maitland thinking he has the money the lawyer stole from them, and he has to deal with this, along with the prospect of not getting paid for the bounty, since the skipper has been killed.

Rough days for Maitland. Every one should get shot up for a good cause, not because the skipper pedophile got himself shot up.

This is a quick read, but fast and the action is good. The conflicts Maitland faces are challenges he will have to resolve in a sequel.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Studious detective fiction take on Rambo, January 30, 2006

By 

C. Blanc "Chris Blanc" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Star First Edition Mystery - Maitland (Hardcover)

When books written by women get unreal, things like otherwise rotten characters having a change of heart and becoming angels happen; when males go outside of reality, you get books infused with the aggressive delusion that each character is an effigy instead of a metaphor. In this one, a guy is wronged and must get revenge. Many aspects of its understanding of crime are accurate and even more, highly artistically persuasive and insightful. However, as a whole the book seems (much as happens in Robert Parker books) like a cartoon that keeps trying to re-enter a dark alleyway although all of its characters are drawn in primary colors. This is a good book for airplanes or waiting in lobbies for job interviews.