The Iris Deception (Western Literature Series) [Paperback]

Bernard Schopen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the hardest things to pull off in the mystery world is an homage to your favorite writer that isn't a pale, stiff shadow of the original. Bernard Schopen, a Ross Macdonald scholar, avoids all the pitfalls and produces a novel that would make the real Macdonald--the late, much missed Ken Millar--beam with pleasure.

From Publishers Weekly

When Patty McLeod walks into Jack Ross's office, he is certain of two things?that both his retirement from his work as a private investigator and his carefully constructed new life are over. For Patty McLeod has come back to hire him to finish a job he did for her 18 years ago. Ross, whose escapades as a private investigator were earlier chronicled in The Desert Look and The Big Silence , is a colorful, old-fashioned man whose love of solitude and the desert are perfectly portrayed by Schopen's dry, desolate prose. The case that Patty wants Ross to reopen involves the unsolved disappearance of her then teenage daughter, Heather. Out of guilt and because of his own secret yearnings, Ross reluctantly accepts. During his investigation, he encounters another private eye, Martha Reedy, and together they search for Heather in the seedy world of porno film. What ensues is a mesmerizing tale that leads Ross and Martha through layers of greed, murder and deception?all revolving around a dying man's ranch and the secret it harbors. This is a fine addition for readers already committed to Ross and an equally good introduction for tyros.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press; First Edition edition (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874172861
• ISBN-13: 978-0874172867
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,259,870 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars A winner..., March 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Iris Deception (Western Literature Series) (Paperback)

Bernard Schopen again does an outstanding job of taking the reader to the Reno, Nevada of PI Jack Ross. The storyline, the twists and turns, and the depiction of the natural beauty of northern Nevada combine to create for the reader an escape to this world. Let's have another one soon, Mr. Schopen!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!, October 25, 1997

By 

Robert I. Katz (Port Jefferson, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Iris Deception (Western Literature Series) (Paperback)

Bernard Schopen has a superb prose style and a sure eye for the telling detail. His characters are well rounded and his protagonist--the lawyer-detective, Jack Ross--is hard boiled but sensitive, in the tradition of Spenser and Elvis Cole. This excellent novel in an excellent series deserves to be widely read.