Customer Reviews

Last Ditch: A Leo Waterman Mystery (Leo Waterman Mysteries)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been looking for new authors recently, and decided to give Ford a try. I am happy that I did. His main character Leo Waterman is in the same vein as Robert Crais' Elvis Cole, only perhaps not quite as funny. In Last Ditch, Leo, in the course of doing some renovations to his property, comes across a buried body. The body turns out to be that of his late politician fathers biggest enemy, and has been missing for some 30 years. Obviously Leo's father is the number one suspect, so Leo sets out to find the truth. Leo is a great character in the genre, tough, but not unbelievably so, very human, and of course wisecracking. There are lots of twists and turns and misdirections in this well plotted novel. The writing is also above the quality often found in the genre, Ford really puts the reader into the scene. If you like a good mystery, Last Ditch is a good place to look.

This is definitely a quality book. It is a very well developed story with interesting characters. The story builds very well and the conclusion is satisfying. I would recommend this book to any avid mystery reader. I am a big fan of Robert Parker, Robert Crais, and Harlan Coben. While Leo Waterman doesn't have the sidekick that the hero in those books does, he has much the same demeanor as Spenser, Elvis Cole, and Myron Bolitar. The wit isn't quite as snappy, but still enjoyable. These are only minor comments and what prevents me from giving the book 5 stars, don't let it prevent you from reading this book. I have a ton of books, but I am sure that I will pick up another one of Ford's novels sometime in the near future.

As always, G.M. Ford gives us what we want; great one liners and many bum antics! Leo Waterman is in form, and if you don't know what that means, you need to read this book!

I discovered this author at the new listings section at the library and found this book so amusing I raced through it and went right back for a second. His characters are richly developed, comical and earthy. Leo and his crew are real people with real life problems (OK, a dead body in the old greenhouse is more literary than real life but it's still good stuff). I always appreciate a sense of humor and Leo and G.M. certainly get theirs across. I believe an author has done his job well when I wish I could meet the principals. Rather reminds me of Richard Russo in that respect--also very funny although not a mystery writer. I would recommend this book to others and am in fact here purchasing it for a friend. I would read it again--and THAT's saying something!

Seattle private investigator Leo Waterman and his girl friend Rebecca Duvall move into the mansion he inherited from his father, Wild Bill. The yard looks like no one touched it for the past decade. To rectify that, Leo puts "The Boys" to work, his homeless, usually intoxicated assistants.They are charged with cleaning up the yard. However, the crew uncovers a skeleton, which turns out to be Peerless Price, a reporter missing for over two decades.

Though his politico father loathed Peerless, Leo cannot believe his father would kill the ultra-right wing journalist. Leo becomes obsessed to investigate the mystery in order to save his father's reputation. The more he digs the more the evidence points towards Bill being the killer.

In the fifth novel, LAST DITCH, the Leo Waterman series remains a humorous, entertaining Seattle sleuthing series. The twists and turns that are trademarks of G.M. Ford are all in this novel. Leo, Rebecca and his

assistants are interesting characters, who make the story line even more fun to read. The addition of personal glimpses of Leo's childhood and Wild Bill help humanize an already brilliant series. Anyone who reads LAST DITCH will want to peruse the previous four novels because they read like a BMW.

Harriet Klausner

This may be the best in the series, though I'm still partial to Cast in Stone, and I missed Jed James. Ford is in a class with James Lee Burke, Robert Crais, Dennis Lehane, etc - a cut above the rest. This one has social commentary a la Travis McGee, too. As a former resident of Seattle, Ford makes me feel like I'm back there everytime. Can't wait for the next one.

It's dark, it's twisted, it's sharp- and like everything Ford writes, it's funny. Rumpled Seattle PI, Leo Waterman and his Boys are back in fine form. Last Ditch is another great addition to a top-notch series.

Leo Waterman is a very likeable wisecracking P.I. much like the one created by Robert Crais. If you like Crais, you will like this series. Ford writes hardboiled action scenes without them becoming to "dark". The book had an interesting plot and the characters were believable. After reading this book I immediately went out and got three more Ford books. Ford's humor is not politically correct. When he is illustrating the unlikeliness of something happening he muses, "Sure and if Mama Cass had given Karen Carpenter her ham sandwich, they'd both be alive today." When describing an elderly matron who was no stranger to the plastic surgeon's knife, he writes " if they stretched her skin any tighter, her eyes would be looking to the sides." It is difficult to write humorous mysteries with a good plot, but Ford does it.

This was the first novel in G.M. Ford's Leo Watterman private detective series that I have read. I found Ford to be a decent writer and Waterman to be a moderately interesting character. But neither can hold a candle to such greats as, say, Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder or the master Chandler's Phillip Marlowe. The back cover says that Ford is a former creative writing teacher and that figures because his writing is at time a bit too cute in its effort to be entertaining. The biggest drawback of Waterman's charcater, son of a now deceased prominent politician, is that he's far too happy with his domestic life and too well known in the community to be the classic alienated cynical private eye. Ford gives a good feel for life in Seattle as a backdrop for Waterman's antics. Waterman is also properly quick with both his wit and his weapons when need be. But his continuous run ins with the cops get tiresome after awhile and the story is bloated by about an extra fifty pages or so.

Overall, I rank Ford squarely in the middle of P.I. fiction writers. Though I enjoyed spending time with Waterman on this one occasion, I will not be going out of my way to seek him out again.