Customer Reviews

When One Man Dies (Jackson Donne Mysteries)

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

 

 

While sitting in his favorite bar drinking beer, PI Jackson Donne, the bartender and everyone else heard a loud crash outside. A popular fellow drinker was hit by a car that sped away. A possible hit-and-run, but the more everyone thinks about it they think it probably was a homicide. The owner/bartender tells Donne that the victim was their friend, and implores him to find the perpetrator.

Thus begins a complicated tale involving corrupt police, a cop with a grudge against Donne, drug traffickers and lots of violence. Donne is warned off the investigation by his former partner on the police force, but he has promised to go on, so he does. Meanwhile he accepts another assignment, and somehow as things progress, the two cases seem to overlap.

The story develops, moving slowly to its finale. But the past continues to haunt the present. Donne is the typical hard-boiled PI found throughout the genre, as well as a punching bag too often. For fans of the genre, it is a very satisfying read.

I got an unexpected ARC in the mail in September: Dave White's When One Man Dies. Intrigued by the quotes on the back, I started it right away. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past page 10. This is a good example of how a distracting "surface" (an author's style) can get in the way of the appreciation of deeper matters like character and story.

I have a few pet peeves in fiction, and one of them is long-windedness. Stating the same thing, reworded, in two (or three) consecutive sentences. Or letting characters spend five paragraphs talking about what's on the jukebox if they do nothing but agree with each other -- that doesn't tell me anything more about them than I already knew.

Another thing that has unfortunately become very popular is an author's thinking that real-world dialogue is the same as realistic fiction dialogue. People in real life mutter and "um" and take forever to get to the point, but this is grating in a novel. If your characters state everything I need to know in two sentences of a conversation, the rest can safely be cut. I like a little color in my characters as much as anybody, but it needs to be carefully folded into an already tight text.

Style and voice are subjective things that we react to individually. Obviously, based on the blurbs, other people really enjoyed this book, so your experience may be different from mine. But I won't be going any further with this book. And this is unfortunate, because the relationship between the young P.I. and the older gent intrigued me.

or the Bosnian Mob or stolen rocket plans or deadly nukes trucking around the country or secret societies with anti-matter and a grudge against Catholic goldfish or crotchety doctors with a limp for crissakes!
If you need any or all of the above then, When One Man Dies, is not for you. It has an interesting, well written plot and believable characters who are up to their own forms of No Good -- including the main guy, PI John Donne.
There's not a lot of constantly rising, cliffhanging action but the pace is brisk and the separate events are well placed to keep the reader going. The PI wants what his honor demands. The bad guy does what he has to to get even with the PI. The other characters good, bad, and some of both, do what they do. The conclusion makes sense. Great book to settle back with. A cup of coffee, a pack of smokes and this book on a spring going into summer afternoon and you got a great way to spend a few hours. Yeah.

Jackson Donne, a former cop turned PI, has just lost one of his closest drinking buddies in a tragic hit and run. Not trusting the local police, Jackson decides to look into the case on his own. Meanwhile, a woman hires him to look into the shady dealings of her husband. As Donne looks further into both cases, he soon discovers connections that could place not only his career, but also his life in jeopardy.

Dave White breathes new life into the PI crime genre in this impressive debut. This is clever storytelling that hooks readers from the startling first line up until the gratifying conclusion. This novel is packed with smart and snappy dialogue, absorbing mystery elements, and cleverly portrayed settings. However, White's real strength is found in his main protagonist. Jackson Donne is a memorable hero who is complex, flawed, and admirable, all at the same time. His search for truth and commitment to justice are infectious elements that add to the richness of his character.

White effectively uses the first-person narrative to unfold the story through the eyes of Jackson Donne. The result is an engrossing and addictive read that grabs on and never lets go. The first of a new series, When One Man Dies is a dark, gritty, and delightful debut that proves Dave White is a promising new talent to watch for.

Armchair Interviews says: Wonderful story, well-told.

Dave White has created a truly believable and intriguing character in Jackson Donne. He makes Jackson as fragile and flawed as possible, leaking his past of mistakes and regrets without sacrificing his likability with the reader. It's a story of a young man trying to get his life back together after a stint as a cop and the unpredictable, sometimes dry business of a private investigator. Jackson, recently enrolled at Rutgers, finds himself hurled into a hit and run case that left his best friend dead in the middle of the streets of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Simultaneously, Jackson is asked to investigate a man suspected of cheating on his wife and makes a startling discovery on the case. The more digging he does, the more he wishes he'd never been involved. Problem is, it's too late to turn back.

Dave White is gifted at painting the perfect picture for an audience. His description of New Jersey and the people that reside there is about as accurate as anyone could put it and the traits he attaches to the characters establish a sense of value, determination and loyalty. I'd recommend this novel not only to anyone who is a fan of truly captivating mysteries, but to any and everyone who lives in New Jersey. You can relate to many of the little details.

Be sure to look into Dave's next novel in the series, The Evil That Men Do, out in June.

Grade: A-

I'll admit, I'm not usually a mystery type, but I picked this one up on a whim. It's set in New Jersey, which is my home state, so that drew me to it. I'm so glad I picked it up.

The story moves fast, and with every page I turned, I was thrown for another loop. White has more twists in this story than I could ever have expected, and throws them at you constantly, even up to the last five pages. I really can't wait see more from him.

Dave White has long been regarded in the mystery world as one of the finest young writers of short fiction. Now he has produced his first novel, "When One Man Dies," and the results are just as pleasing.

Jackson Donne is an ambivalent New Jersey private eye who wants to quit the business and get an education. Before he can do that, however, he is compelled to investigate after his closest friend is murdered.

He still has to pay the bills, so he also takes a job tailing an adulterous spouse. Naturally, he finds that there is more going on than meets the eye. As Donne unravels the mystery, White reveals through a series of clever plot twists that the two cases are actually related.

White has written a PI novel that is both traditional and fresh, one of the few new talents to join this much-plowed field with something interesting and original to say. Fans of detective novels will, we hope, be enjoying his work for years to come.