Items related to A Fine and Private Place: A Gil Disbro Mystery
Hired by a judge who has been blackmailed because of the misdeeds of his ne'er-do-well nephew, private investigator Gil Disbro uncovers a scam involving significant figures in the world of organized crime, a discovery that puts his life in danger. Reprint.
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From Kirkus Reviews:
Breezy Cleveland PI Gil Disbro's latest client, frail old Judge Lowell Amerine, has a truly unusual problem. For nine months now he's been paying blackmail to somebody who knows he let his scapegrace nephew Barry Sprague, already in Dutch with gambler Gus Cusimano, bury his lover Megan Latimer (who OD'd on some drugs she shared with Barry) out in the wilds of the judge's backyard. But now he's gotten a demand from a second blackmailer, and enough is enough. Gil goes to work and swiftly discovers that: (1) the first blackmailer, one G.K. Hatton, doesn't exist; (2) Gus and his goons are a lot more intimately involved with Barry than the judge realizes; and (3) Megan is still alive. So far, so good, and when Gil ties all this malfeasance to his old acquaintance Slick Underhill's ingenious con for making big money on a no-name middleweight bout, the pot seems to be bubbling merrily. But then the judge suffers a fatal heart attack; Slick turns up equally dead; Gil figures out who's really buried out back of the judge's place; and you spend the rest of the time keeping track of the bodies (there'll be more) and waiting for the killer's luck to run down. Initially, Gil and the case are as beguiling as last time (And Then You Die, 1992), but once again Martin's resort to wholesale homicide is the sign of his flagging invention. Maybe he ought to stick to one-acts. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Publishers Weekly:
This compact narrative, niftily constructed scam-by-scam, is illuminated by the succinct charm of Cleveland PI Gil Disbro, who last shone in And Then You Die . An elderly judge is being blackmailed for allowing his no-good nephew to bury his girlfriend, dead of an overdose, on the grounds of his home nine months earlier. The judge is wealthy and can afford to pay, but when another blackmailer issues demands, the judge calls on Gil. The dead girl shows up alive and kicking (literally: she teaches an aerobics class), and the first blackmailer is unveiled. One scam links the nephew to a mob family; another connects the mob to a fixed boxing match; the fixers are linked to a con man, who has ties to the dead girl who isn't. At about half a dozen moments along the way, Gil has everything figured out, but then revisions are required. In a case ripe with an assortment of svelte and dangerous women, Gil's best girl, Helen, wishes his contacts were uglier. Although a few oddball minor characters, like the mobster's psychotic mother, get short-changed in the abrupt plot shifts, this tight-as-a-drum caper leaves a clear, sharp impression.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherAvon Books
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0380716976
- ISBN 13 9780380716975
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages256
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Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fine. No spine crease. Full number line. 251 pages. A Gil Disbro Mystery. Hired by a judge who has been blackmailed because of the misdeeds of his ne'er-do-well nephew, private investigator Gil Disbro uncovers a scam involving significant figures in the world of organized crime, a discovery that puts his life in danger. Seller Inventory # 605840
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. Light shelf wear. 1st printing. Exceptional copy. ; 8vo - 7 ¾ - 9 ¾" tall. ". Seller Inventory # 003164
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Book Description Condition: Good. Acclaimed Cleveland detective Gil Disbro is back in a gripping new adventure featuring the high-stakes world of big-time boxing. The bell rings when Lowell Amerine, a distinguished elderly judge, hires the chain-smoking, teetotaling detective to find out who has been blackmailing him over a body buried in his backyard. Amerine's no-good nephew has already told him that the body is that of a girlfriend who accidentally died of a drug overdose. But now that there is not one blackmailer, but two, the judge is getting worried. Gil soon discovers that there is no shortage of possible suspects. Is the blackmailer the ne'er-do-well nephew, Barry Sprague, or perhaps Gus Cusimano, the Mafia don who has been pressuring Sprague to pay up on his gambling debts? Maybe it is Pete Botkin, the shady fight promoter who skipped town after getting on the wrong side of Cusimano. Or Disbro's old nemesis, Slick Underhill, the Midwest's con artist par excellence. Gil soon finds himself dodging both bullets and the police as he tries to thwart a brutal killer and unravel a brilliant scam. In addition to a growing body count, Disbro also has to contend with a beautiful young woman with a secret. His attraction to her threatens his relationship with his professor lover, Helen. In this, his best Gil Disbro mystery yet, James E. Martin exposes the seamy underside of Cleveland's streets and neighborhoods with expert detail and nonstop action. Harlan Ellison, James Ellroy, and Thomas Gifford have praised Martin's writing since it first appeared. And reviewers claim that James E. Martin is doing for Cleveland what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles. Hard-hitting, gritty, and authentic, A Fine and Private Place willundoubtedly secure Martin's place in the hard-boiled pantheon. 256 pages. Seller Inventory # 1318752
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