Night Shadows (A Jake Sands Mystery) [Paperback]

Ron Ely (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

Retreating to Santa Barbara to recover from his tragic past, Jake Sands walks away from the murdered body he accidentally finds, until he meets the victim's beautiful widow. Reprint. AB. LJ.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former TV actor (he played Tarzan) and Miss America Pageant host, Ely introduces a hard-to-like Santa Barbara investigator in this unpromising series launch. Supposedly tough-as-all-outdoors Jake Sands is an ex-military, ex-government agency, retired "recovery" expert (read bounty hunter) who now lives in a swank beach compound and finds much to fault in the world, from New Age music to slow waiters with dirty fingernails. Sands has two cases to unravel: not long after he discovers the body of a jogger, recently dropped by a bullet, right in his path, a long-legged blonde asks him for help in finding a missing husband. Ely angles in on the latter puzzle, making much of Sands and his client's physical attraction and twanging expected chords of betrayal and disappointment. Smug and petulant, assuming an annoying authority on such topics as classic cars, blends of coffee and the ills of the modern world, Sands is a lifeless, unbelievable character whose actions fail to hold reader's interest.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ex-actor Ely of Tarzan fame offers a sturdy, tough but sensitive protagonist in a moderately successful first novel. Jake Sands, still in his forties but wealthy and retired from his job as a recovery agent, lives in an exclusive area of Santa Barbara. A private investigator in all but name, Jake agrees to locate a beautiful woman's missing husband. His search quickly uncovers links to suspicious death and certain murder. Initially stilted and unyielding prose gives way to pleasant modulation, just as Jake's attitude softens a bit. Flawed but worth reading.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Worldwide Library (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373262183
• ISBN-13: 978-0373262182
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,978,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great mystery/suspense book with fine protagonist, October 23, 1998

By 

W.S. Brown (Camp Verde, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Shadows (A Jake Sands Mystery) (Paperback)

Ron Ely did well with Jake Sands. He is a throw-off of John D's Travis McGee. A well written, fast paced book, that will not disappoint a veteran reader of mystery/suspense books. Hope you turn out another Jake Sands book soon, Ron.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful descriptions and inner sharing, June 5, 2011

By 

Leonard Zane (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Night Shadows (Paperback)

First, a preamble to this review. I admit to being a BIG fan of Ron Ely as a media person. Over the years, he developed a convincing ability to portray robust, healthy and handsome heroism, along with good nature and a gentle and good-humored demeanor around a strong core. A great role model. So I'm surprised I never got round to reading this 17-year-old book till now! As I rather expected, Ely has turned out to be a clearly intelligent author (and I'll bet he's also since learned a great deal from his three children, who have enjoyed much better education than he did). So I'm curious about what his attitudes and creative writing might be now -- especially after years of possibly heated grilling and even family debates regarding dense and narrow right-wing politics that show up so 'liberally' in NIGHT SHADOWS.

This first novel eloquently paints atmospheres and descriptions of locales and people, together with revealing Jake Sands' intimate and sensitive thoughts and feelings along the way. It's a very psychological and also evocative piece, often gritty and sometimes grisly; but the calibre of language is also extraordinarily elegant and refreshing in this age of often literary crudeness. In that way, it's like Raymond Chandler, and with very satisfying first-person narrative and inner disclosure.

There's a plethora of characters and situations that can be mind-boggling to follow and adequately assimilate; but Earl Derr Biggers did that too, with his Charlie Chan novels, although much more skillfully than Ely's first try.

A particularly curious thing about this story is that the arch villain -- and even some minor ones -- are terribly obvious, long before disclosure, and that the author may even want it that way without coming right out and exposing early on. In the traditions of Agatha Christie and Mickey Spillane, it is portrayal of character that unlocks mystery, and this book does so in spades and is not so mysterious about who the bad folks are. Now, that said, the novel is amazingly complex and convoluted on HOW the plot unfolds and who is connected with whom.

I also enjoyed how Ely accurately portrays the Central California places and coast that I know well, and the portrayals are very picturesque and colorful. He reveals a great deal about himself and his attitudes, too. For example: injuries he himself suffered during his acting career, his physical fitness regimens, his love and fixation for coffee, his favorite music, how he's swayed by looks, and even depression and drinking bout experience. In this way, I think Ely is a very candid and self-confessing author about who he is, and I find him likeable in openly sharing good and not so good aspects of himself. I would also hope he has intellectually developed since this early book, but there's regrettably nothing recent from him. I wonder if he'd like to try science fiction?

So is this book worth reading? I'd say sure, for all the fine descriptions and revelations, if not necessarily for plot.