There is a lot to like about this collection of short stories featuring retired detective Quinn Moosebroker and his girlfriend Betty Atwood. They are appealing characters; he a little rough around the edges, she more sophisticated but no snob. The mysteries they find themselves involved in are interesting with the potential to be a cut above the norm. These include a murder in a small town community theater, a very valuable piece of artwork that was stolen during World War II, and the long-ago death of a crippled child: All intriguing ideas. The fact that the stories are all set in the early 1970s - complete with references to hit television shows of the period - adds a nice flavor to the mysteries. Author Michael Friedman has also used an interesting device in some of the stories that end without an arrest and I think he should be applauded for taking that risk in a genre that all but demands the bad guys get punished in the end.
Unfortunately, for me, the writing did not live up to that potential. Leaving aside the formatting problems - something that almost all Indie authors struggle with - "The Quinn Moosebroker Mysteries" reads like a first draft. By that I mean that neither the characters nor the settings read as though they are fully realized. There are flashes of some very good writing in the book but there are also many sections that could use some serious editing. There are poor word choices and too many run-on sentences, for example, throughout it.
The book also contains several illustrations that pop up on pages in the middle of the narrative. I found this to be very distracting although others may not.
In short: "The Quinn Moosebroker Mysteries" is a diamond in the rough.
It just needs some polishing.
- File Size: 1220 KB
- Print Length: 364 pages
- Publisher: Mockingbird-Books (December 14, 2014)
- Publication Date: December 14, 2014
- Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00R1G2JXM
- Text-to-Speech:
Enabled
- Word Wise: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#4,275,063 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #24385 in Private Investigator Mysteries (Books)
- #16435 in Private Investigator Mysteries (Kindle Store)
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