Customer Reviews

On the Nickel (Jack Liffey Mysteries)

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Let me begin by saying I really enjoyed reading "Palos Verdes Blue." Not so much with "On the Nickel." Although I found the various facts about the homeless, skid row, etc. at the end of each chapter enlightening, I felt they broke up the continuity of the story. My second point has to do with the plausibility of the plot. In a town like L.A. that is teeming with cops, not one of the characters tries to get LAPD involved with the tenants' dispute. On the positive side, Jack Liffey is incapacitated for a good part of the story. I'd like to see more writers utilize disabled characters in their stories. That's the way of the real world. And finally, I thought Felice and Millie turned out to be throw-away characters. Instead of Jack Liffey waxing philosophical at the end, I would have rather he said: "Felice, now let's find your husband."

I do want to work backwards and read the novel where Jack and Eleanor meet and fall in love for a short time.

We have seen Meave become more involved in her fathers life and business. Now as Jack is parlized she compleatly takes over his business,in search for the 16 year old son of good friend Mike Lewis. Will she find him? will Jacks back heal so he can take over the investigation? Will Loco overcome his cancer? Read "On the Nickel" and find out.

Jack Liffey is a p.i. whose business card states "I Find Missing Children." Not so much lately though, as Jack has for several weeks been confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak, although his doctors tell him there is nothing physiologically wrong. The loss of the use of his legs and voice occurred after his last case, when he was buried alive in a massive landslide after a dynamite blast, which in turn kick-started his latent claustrophobia.

The usual characters populate the novel, including Loco, his elderly half-coyote pet; his teenage daughter, Maeve, and his girlfriend Gloria, an LAPD Sergeant with whom he and Maeve live. New in this book is Eleanor Ong, "formerly and once again Sister Mary Rose, by special dispensation," with whom Jack had had an affair ten years prior and had not seen since - she was one among several who suffered the fallout of Jack's work and went back to a convent as her way to deal with that.

When Jack's old friend Mike Lewis calls to ask Jack to find his missing 16-year-old son,
Maeve intercepts the call and, in an effort to ease Jack back into some semblance of a normal life and also as a way to bond with her adored father, takes on the task herself. Mike assumes his son has headed to LA to try to break into the music business, and Maeve's search takes her to Skid Row, "The Nickel," where SROs predominate. One of the SROs, in fact, is the target of a ruthless real estate owner/developer, and the fact that Conor Lewis is staying there at just this point in time makes him - and those searching for him - additional targets of a pair of psycho hired guns trying to empty the building so that it can be converted into luxury lofts.

Much of this novel is not easy reading, portraying as it does the very real and depressing plight of the poor and the homeless, in particular those in LA, and it is punctuated by stats at each chapter's end that make the reader shudder [as I'm sure was the author's intent]. Nietzschean philosophy is invoked here, as is what I assume is the author's, e.g., "Why should the strong and ruthless always win?" It is a well-written series entry, and is recommended.