Customer Reviews

TEMPTATION TOWN (The Jack Barnett / Las Vegas Series)

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

 

 

Mike's greatest talent is his ability to write fiction that doesn't feel like fiction. His new book "Temptation Town" brings the Jack Barnett character to life and makes him seem like he's a guy you actually know.! To me, getting inside the players' heads and their internal dialogues makes reading Mike Dennis intriguing. The current story is a must read for anyone who likes their fiction told in a style which is believable.!

Robyn Salisbury
Las Vegas, Nevada

The Barnett series is an idea whose time has come and an obvious move for this very noir author. Barnett is hair-trigger, battered hero who watches a nightmare unfold and must drum up some faith that something good can come of an investigation into a missing girl from the seamy streets and back alleys of Las Vegas, AKA Temptation Town.

Barnett could be describing himself when he speaks of Emily, the missing girl he's been hired to find, "before they drown, they've got to dig down within themselves and find something they think is worth saving. And they've got to do it all alone." Hang on to this roller coaster because when the screaming stops, it's like turning over a rock. Signature Dennis twists and turns, that keep you guessing, and a multi-layered ending that leaves you waiting for the next Barnett caper. Gritty and clever, a nimble departure from his longer works.

Mike Dennis, author of the Key West Nocturne series of crime novels, has here penned a tight, cautionary tale of corruption and greed set amid the flash & filigree of the Vegas strip and the city's darker byways where drugs, violence and hopelessness abide. The tale is told by Dennis' newest character, Jack Barnett, an ex-gumshoe haunted by his past, who can't leave well enough along. The ghost of Mike Hammer moves through these pages, as Dennis nicely executes several unexpected twists and turns and ends on a plaintive jazz horn lament.

Temptation Town is a very short book. "Novelette", it says in the description, but it's well-done. A private eye loses his license in California and goes to Las Vegas to live under the radar. He needs money, so, against his better judgment, he takes on a job that leads him into the world of Las Vegas prostitution. It says this is the first in a series. I'm waiting for the next one.

I've read a couple of Mike Dennis' books and this is a departure. It's a private eye novelette set in Las Vegas, filled with down-and-dirty locales and characters. A former private eye needs money, so he takes on a job from a well-dressed stranger, and soon finds himself in over his head. Good, quick read, filled with tension.

I loved the characters.
But I read it in an hour.
Beware, this is not a book, it's a short story.
I'm glad I paid zilch. Any more and I'd be pissed.

Maybe he'll put out a real book.

Did I not.get the whole book? It seemed to end in the middle. Not what I look for in a good book!

Did I not get the whole book? It ended as if it were in the middle. Not what I look for in a good book!