Book Review: Dead Easy

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dead Easy     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Phillip DePoy
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Psychic   Private Investigator
Series: Flap Tucker # 5
Dell, Oct 2000, $5.99, 288 pp.

At four in the morning, Atlanta’s Easy nightclub owner Dalliance Oglethorpe calls her on and off lover Flap Tucker to rush over immediately. One of his three rules of life is to come when Dally calls. He quickly arrives and takes a strange looking package from Dally. Flap opens it to see a severed hand with a note about this being the first installment. A stunned Dally tells Flap it means nothing and to stay out of it.

Instead of having Flap, a renowned investigator, make inquiries Dally hires Jersey Jakes, a risky proposition to say the least. Meanwhile, an obnoxious patron harangues Dally at her club. Unable to stay away or leave as he has done numerous times when the commitment level seemed imminent, Flap begins his own investigation, which takes him to their mutual hometown of Invisible, Georgia in the southern side of the state. He begins to piece together her years when he fled her for the safety of the Army, not quite understanding the danger of the final installment.

The Flap Tucker novels are becoming recognized as great stories with the latest entry bound to be considered one of the best regional mysteries of the year. Flap remains a zany Zen master filled with intelligence, humor, but also frustration this time. Dally shows the cracks in her past. The introduction of a teenage girl who appears to be a perfect intern for Flap augments the tale by further humanizing the hero. Phillip DePoy makes reading so EASY to enjoy that fans that devour DEAD EASY will seek the earlier works of a superb author.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner