The Quick (A Jimmy Miles Mystery) [Paperback]

Dan Vining (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Jimmy Miles Mystery | Publication Date: May 25, 2004

Private investigator Jimmy Miles works the Hollywood nights. His new client is the desperate daughter of a dead man. Her father was executed for a long-ago murder--and she wants Jimmy to find out the truth about the crime and the real killer's identity. But this case isn't the only mystery keeping Jimmy up at night.

The shadowy world Jimmy inhabits is full of secrets, shared with a restless few who also roam the L.A. nightworld. They call themselves Sailors. Jimmy Miles is one of them. And he is about to discover the truth about himself.

And for a Sailor that can be a frightening thing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the first entry in what will hopefully be a long-running series, first-time author Vining successfully weaves together two very different stories. The first concerns a decades-old murder case that the ominous and cool detective Jimmy Miles is hired to re-open. The second revolves around the fact that Jimmy Miles is dead—a sort of undead Spenser. He walks among the beautiful people of Los Angeles, seemingly one of them, with only the occasional stranger picking up his true nature. He is in fact part of a much larger group, the Sailors, people who have died but are "here, in the flesh... with us... this second version of yourself." Not all Sailors are good guys, of course; some of them, the Walkers, are downright sinister. This makes a terrific setting for a stylish mystery, and the fact that the supernatural elements blend so well with that mystery is to Vining's credit. The pace is as laid-back as Miles himself, and Vining's neo-noir prose sports a refreshing 21st-century hipness that owes nothing to Chandler and Hammett (trees are "gnarled, arthritic, almost bare but still alive," and the femme fatale's lipstick is "some shade of fifties red, edged in black in a way you couldn't exactly see when you looked for it").
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Review

Strange, haunting, cool - and very hard to put down. (Michael Marshall, author of The Straw Men)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Jove (May 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515137197
• ISBN-13: 978-0515137194
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,371,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, Offbeat and Wonderful, July 9, 2004

By 

W. D LaRue (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Quick (A Jimmy Miles Mystery) (Paperback)

Michael Marshall put it perfectly in his review "Strange, haunting, cool - and very hard to put down"
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it's strange, dream-like feeling. Some books are meant to be read slowly and their language and set pieces digested at leisure. This is one of them.
It's not a bang, bang, bang...type of book.
Jimmy Miles is an engaging character. I got a kick out how he is interested in EVERYTHING, no matter how unimportant or trivial, and when I thought about it, it all made sense. When you are pretty much eternal and don't really sleep....well, sure, if you are going to keep going you are going to have the time and the inclination (not to mention the necessity) to be interested in all sorts of things.
This really is very dreamlike and just a pleasure to read.
I look forward to more books from Dan Vining.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Quick: An Awesome Read, July 21, 2004

By 

A. E Maloney "Lochthyme" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Quick (A Jimmy Miles Mystery) (Paperback)

The Quick by Dan Vining. It's a private eye book with a supernatural twist. Private investigator Jimmy Miles works
the Hollywood nights. His new client is the desperate daughter of a dead man. Her father was executed for a long-ago murder-and she wants Jimmy to uncover the truth about the crime and the real killer's identity. A well written noir story with an interesting mystery, fascinating characters and a really cool woo woo element. The story did leave some unanswered questions which I hope may be answered in another book if this is intended to be a series. If you are looking for a cozy this isn't it. Rather it's a noirish
haunting mystery that may leave more questions than it answers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Raymond Chandler meets Swayze, August 17, 2004

By 

John Bowes (Oxford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Quick (A Jimmy Miles Mystery) (Paperback)

The gimmick long suspected takes 115 pages to confirm and even longer to partially explain. The ending leaves us in purgatory, unsatisfied and longing for answers. The author can write and succesfully creates a mood that is difficult to shake. If this is a series, it will be interesting to see where it goes.