Customer Reviews

Jump (A Sam McGowan Adventure)(Library Edition)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This book was cross referenced to me by Amazon due to my enjoyment of Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey. Maleeny incorporates the same type of wacky characters. From the dope dealing brothers to the soft porn queens as well as other residents of the apartment building, the characters will keep you reading and wondering what laugh is on the next page.

If you are the type of reader who enjoys laughing while reading, this book is for you. Also, if you are not familiar with the works of Hiaasen or Dorsey, give them a try.

What a great group of characters! The book has everything...mystery, humor and a little romance. I read it in one day and passed it along to my friends.

I am a huge fan of author Tim Maleeny's "Cape Weathers Investigation" series so I was eager to read "Jump" and see what he could do with a new group of characters. I am here to say he doesn't disappoint. There are definite similarities between the Cape Weathers series of books and "Jump" with a San Francisco based story and a main protagonist that drives a classic Ford Mustang but that's about where the likeness ends. Like Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window", "Jump" primarily takes place in one fateful apartment building. Mr. Maleeny lets us be Jimmy Stewart and watch his characters intertwine and overlap as they all react to the opening scene of their not so lovable landlord's plunge off of the roof. Like players in a great stage play it was an absolute joy following the eccentric group of characters as they led me to the really fun surprise ending. Thank you Mr. Maleeny for another great read.

I just got a great introduction to a new, to me, a new author. Tim Maleeny's JUMP is fun ride: and ride I did, as experienced it in my car listening to an audio version narrated by the great Tom Weiner. Really quirky characters, some you would love to share a beer with, some you would avoid like the plague, propel a story that is funny, clever, and poignant: all at the same time. A hint: be prepared for some HILARIOUS metaphores. A word to the wise: if you experience this book while driving, PLEASE keep your eyes open while laughing uproariously. And a fine time will be had by all. Thanks, Mr. Maleeny.

JUMP moves author Tim Maleeny in a new and intriguing direction. Already critically acclaimed for his popular Cape Weathers series, Maleeny's first stand-alone work is a bit grittier and sexier, combining classic whodunit elements with crime caper attitudes to create a book that is part Leonard, part Westlake, and all Maleeny.

JUMP is firmly set in Maleeny's San Francisco, with the action almost equally divided between the uneasy streets of the Mission District and the edge of downtown. It is in the latter area that a death occurs --- the untimely but welcome demise of Ed Lowry, one of the city's most despised landlords. Lowry's departure from this side of the veil is occasioned by his 20-story fall from the top floor of his apartment building. If he jumped, it's a suicide; if he was pushed, it's a murder.

Sam McGowan, a newly retired San Francisco police detective, is one of Lowry's top floor tenants, who is still going through the motions of life some two years after losing his wife Marie to cancer. Danny Rodriguez, McGowan's former partner, is assigned to investigate Lowry's death and enlists McGowan's reluctant assistance to interview potential suspects --- McGowan's neighbors on the 20th floor --- to see if anyone had a motive for sending Lowry plummeting to his death.

McGowan discovers early on that just about all of them, including himself, had experienced a run-in of one sort or another with the unpopular Lowry. He also finds that they are a mixed and interesting bag of characters: a feisty seasoned citizen and her fitness-obsessed beau; a brother team of entrepreneurs who are selling more than sandwiches through their food service business; a low-budget movie producer; two young ladies with an extremely interesting website; and, most significantly for McGowan, a jazz chanteuse who gently entices him back to the land of the living.

McGowan's investigation soon dovetails with one of his former cases, which involved a San Francisco drug kingpin whose tentacles reach into McGowan's apartment building. The two have an old score to settle, and before JUMP reaches its climax, alliances will shift, secrets will be revealed, and McGowan, retirement notwithstanding, will determine whether Lowry's death was an accident, suicide, or murder.

Maleeny has always peppered his stories with a mix of quirky characters, but he takes this practice to new heights with JUMP. He strikes a perfect balance between the odd and the believable, keeping the weirdness factor under control while making each and every character, from the apartment security guard to a pair of ill-fated, hapless hit men, memorable and interesting. One of my favorite elements, however, is stylistic in nature. Maleeny ties the end of one chapter to the beginning of the next, even as he jumps scenes, if you will, in the cinematic sense. This takes a great deal of work, but his level of tradecraft is such that he makes it look easy.

From beginning to end, JUMP goes down smoother than an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista while providing the same kick, and then some. Don't miss this one.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

I'm a Robert B Parker, Travis McGee, Harry Bosch type...and now I'll read whatever Tim Maleeny puts out.

Today its so rare to find mysteries that balance action, plot and humor without selling out or going over the top.

This book ( and his others) deliver.

Get in now because there's no doubt Maleeny is going to be huge and soon.

Tim has such a great voice. His style is like nothing I've ever read before. I will forgive him any cliche and the occasional not so great ending (previous book) because I enjoy his style so much that I just can't put it down. I expect great things from this writer!

I recently finished Tim Maleeny's latest, "Jump", and I loved it. The thing about Maleeny is that he can combine the absurd, the serious, the poignant, and the humor into a great read that keeps you turning pages. I'm a great fan of literary crime fiction, along the likes of Chandler and Hammett, and I generally prepare myself to be disappointed by modern detective writing. But Maleeny doesn't disappoint: he is serious about his writing, yet seems to say to his reader, "Hey, I know this is merely fiction, but I'll make it worth your time to read it." And he does. I keep wanting to compare him to another writer, but I fail: he's original, through and through.

After going out on an early retirement former San Francisco homicide detective widower Sam McGowan looks forward to rest and relaxation. When his odious landlord Ed Lowry takes a swan dive from a twentieth story window at the Golden Towers Apartment, Sam plans to remain out of it. The brass pressure Sam's former partner Danny Rodriguez to declare it officially a suicide, but he has doubts.

Danny asks Sam on his first day of retirement to conduct some informal inquiries with his twentieth floor neighbors. Reluctantly Sam does and learns everyone seemed to want Lowry dead; no one is mourning his loss. However who amongst the sandwich shop owning Siegel brothers whose store sells drugs; elderly widow Gail; Shayla and Tamara who are paying for grad schools through illicit webcam activities, and a few other players would actually kill the nasty punk.

Readers looking for a wacky San Francisco whodunit will want to JUMP into this amusing mystery. None of the suspects hide their disdain for "dead Ed", which is a bit of a surprise for Sam as usually people avoid making nasty comments about the departed. The cast is zany bringing alive the eccentric charm of San Francisco as Tim Maleeny provides an amusing whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

I picked this up as an advance reading copy and started it while bored at work one day -- and wow, am I glad I did. I didn't expect to immediately become engrossed in the story and interested in the characters. What a bunch of misfits to fall in love with!

This is a fast paced mystery/thriller about a retired cop sort of investigating the murder (swan dive off the roof) of his landlord, along with a motley crew of other tenants in his building. Sam's neighbors are anything but ordinary!

I think any fan of a good whodunit will appreciate the humor and the plot development in this new novel by a very gifted writer! I hope there are more to come in this series about Sam McGowan.