Book Review: Bluetick Revenge

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

Bluetick Revenge     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Mark Cohen
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Private Investigator
Mysterious Press; $33.95 hardcover; 310 pages

Pepper Keane has a hot dog. His old friend and former law partner hired him to steal a champion bluetick hound from Thadeus Bugg, leader of the Sons of Satan motorcycle gang. Bugg’s common-law wife, Karlynn, has turned state’s evidence against the gang leader, but she refuses to go into the Witness Protection Program without Prince. Pepper successfully liberates Prince, but he also ends up keeping watch over Karlynn until the feds are ready to make her disappear. Then Bugg hires him to look for Karlynn. While Pepper tries to throw Bugg off his ex-wife’s trail, Karlynn makes herself disappear. Now Pepper has bikers after him, he’s lost the woman he was supposed to be watching, and he’s chasing leads in an old murder.

Bluetick Revenge is Cohen’s follow-up to his debut, The Fractal Murders, which garnered all kinds of praise. Cohen’s got a low-key sense of humour that runs throughout the book, but he doesn’t skimp on the action. At the same time, there’s a certain depth to the book; after all, Pepper is a student of philosophy, as well as an ex-Marine Judge Advocate General, ex-lawyer, and current private investigator. Not a common combination in a single character; even less common in the detective novel.

The main plot is strong. I personally could have done without the subplot about Pepper’s mathematics professor girlfriend teaching in China and wanting to adopt a baby girl, but it’s topical and it doesn’t really detract all that much from the main plot. Perhaps I should say “main plots,” because the Karlynn plot peters out halfway through the book and is replaced by the bikers-and-skinheads plot. In any case, Bluetick Revenge is a fun read.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM

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