Five Star First Edition Mystery - What The Hyena Knows (Hardcover)

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Product Description

You might think that P.I. Mike Duncavan, disgraced ex-cop and disbarred lawyer, would have little pride left - but pride was one of the deadly sins that brought him down in the first place. So when his friend, criminal lawyer Stanley Janda, asks Mike for help in defending an accused child killer, he has some serious qualms. Janda's client, Justin Ambertoe, a gay freelance photographer, was seen loitering near the scene of the crime, an abandoned building in a Chicago ghetto, about the time the little boy was murdered. Out of loyalty to his friend, Mike takes the case, but as the investigation proceeds, the State's evidence against Ambertoe mounts, and so do Mike's own doubts about his client. Maybe Ambertoe really is the killer. But if pride has been Mike's downfall, persistence is his strength. Doggedly following a few feeble leads, he eventually uncovers a scheme so bizarre, so diabolical, that no one - not the police, not the prosecutor, not even his own ex-partner - will believe him. The sweep of Mike's investigation takes him through Chicago's seedy back streets, to a west Texas game ranch where African animals are bred for "hunting," to a South African village where witchcraft flourishes and ritual sacrifice is routine. In a deadly cat-and-mouse game, Mike becomes as much quarry as hunter, and wonders whether the forces he's battling might even be supernatural.

A Chicago native, Thomas J. Keevers is a trial lawyer and former homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Five Star; 1 edition (December 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594144419
• ISBN-13: 978-1594144417
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,039,883 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting private investigative tale, December 31, 2005

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

He was a Chicago cop who was fired after he was shot by the husband of the woman he was sleeping with. He became a lawyer who was disbarred by the Illinois legal board when he attacked a judge and an opponent for calling him a liar. When he continued to womanize his wife finally left him. Mike Duncavan is trying to regain what his pride cost him starting with his professional life and he hopes one day his first spouse. He works as a legal investigator taking whatever crumbs lawyers sends his way.

Attorney Stanley Janda, a former cop who met Mike in night school, hires him to find evidence that will exonerate his client photographer Justin Ambertoe, accused of abducting five year old Reggie Brookin. Mike wonders why a gay white man would be in the ghetto even to take pictures of abandoned property. As he interviews the neighbors, he realizes that Stanley's client is hiding something and may be lying beyond the omission, but for some reason believes the man is innocent. When he learns about the African David Akiby, he begins finding loose strings that tie together including seeing a hyena in the park to the Mesquite Bend Ranch in Texas, but the min question remains unanswered: why the kidnapping and probable murder of a child?

If it was not for Mike's uncanny skills to recognize animals this sleuth tale would be a typical sub-genre tale of a rising superstar falling down to the lowest rung and trying to make it back. In Many ways Mike is a flawed Shakespearean tragic figure whose flaws lead to his downfall. The who-done-it is fun to follow though the ties between Chicago, Texas, and Africa seem nebulous at best but his ex explains his abilities so that the link seems plausible. Fans of interesting private investigative tale will want to learn WHAT THE HYENA KNOWS.

Harriet Klausner