The Dollar-A-Year Detective

Retired Chicago homicide detective Jack Starkey is living what he calls every cop's retirement dream by owning a successful bar, The Drunken Parrot, and residing on a houseboat in Fort Myers Beach on Florida's Southwest Gulf Coast.

Mostly, it s been working out just fine. Starkey's drink of choice these days is diet root beer and not the hard stuff that ended his marriage and sent him into rehab. He's dating the lovely Marisa Fernandez, who owns a real estate agency and supplements his usual diet of Pop-Tarts and diner food with gourmet Cuban cooking.

But long-term serenity has never been Jack Starkey's destiny. One evening, Starkey's pal Cubby Cullen, the Fort Myers Beach police chief, comes into the Drunken Parrot to ask a favor. The Coast Guard found a sailboat drifting in Pine Island Sound with two dead bodies aboard, a bank president and his wife, both shot once in the forehead execution style. Murders are rare in town; Cubby asks Jack, who has more homicide experience than anyone in the local police department, to take a look at the crime scene just to offer an opinion.

Starkey agrees, not realizing that this will draw him into an investigation involving offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, corrupt state politicians, a Russian oligarch, and the angry father of a boy who's not getting much playing time on his Little League team. Even in his prime, Starkey would be hard-pressed to find a connection, and his prime is in his rearview mirror. This mystery follows in the tradition of John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiaasen, Lawrence Sanders, and other masters of crime fiction marked by compelling characters, stories with completely unexpected twists and turns, and a strong comic element that will keep a reader thoroughly amused while wondering what could possibly happen next.

The Dollar-A-Year Detective (Murder Mystery)

By William Wells

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579625274

Price $20.92 (Hardcover)

Price $9.99 (Kindle)

224 Pages

Rating 3-Stars

“Typical Retired To Florida Police Detective”

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A big city homicide detective retires to Florida, buys a bar, lives on a boat, and has a beautiful sexy woman jumping into his bed. The local police run into a murder they can’t solve, and naturally call on him to solve the case for them. I think everyone who retires to Florida decides to write a murder mystery and use that plot. Jack Starkey is a retired Chicago Police Detective living in Fort Myers, Florida, with a beautiful Cuban lady friend warming his bed, and he finds life boring. Did I mention he lives on a houseboat and owns a local bar? Then along comes his friend the local police chief asking a favor. There has been a couple murders, execution style, and no one in the local police department is capable of solving the crime, so would Starkey be kind enough to lend a hand with all his experience.

This was a good read, regardless of the typical formula of retired detective from big city living in Florida where police have no experience. I’ve read this book a hundred times, or books just like it. That’s why I seldom read murder mysteries set in Florida, they all have this same formula – at least the ones publishers send me. To his credit, the author is a good writer and keeps the story moving, and the mystery comes together in the end. It’s just the formula I’m against. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA

Detective Fiction

Detective Fiction (Murder Mystery)

By William Wells

Permanent Press www.permanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579624316

Price $28.00

224 Pages

Rating 3-Stars

“Excellent Writing.”

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A big city homicide detective retires to Florida, buys a bar, lives on a boat, and has a beautiful sexy woman jumping into his bed. The local police run into a murder they can’t solve, and naturally call on him to solve the case for them. I think everyone who retires to Florida decides to write a murder mystery and use that plot. I’m almost to the point of passing on any mystery set in Florida. Thankfully, this one does take a nice twist about half way into the novel, by the time I think I have it all figured out, and the plot moves in an unexpected direction.

Retired Chicago homicide detective Jack Starkey has moved to Florida, opened The Drunken Parrot bar, lives on his boat, where his girlfriend Marisa Fernandez de Lopez joins him most nights. His close pal, Clarence “cubby” Cullen, the local chief of police, is also a retired cop from another big city (New York, New Jersey, who cares?). He tells Jack that the police chief in Naples would like to speak with him. In Naples, Jack finds Wade Hansen, another ex-big city cop (I don’t pay any attention to the cities any more) working as the local police chief. He tells Jack the mayor wishes to hire him as an advisor on a case of suspicious deaths.

As a civilian advisor, Jack seems to have a free hand to do whatever he wants. Unfortunately, the story is slow, and we learn more about what millionaires and billionaires eat in Florida, while Jack drives around in fancy cars and looks good. An interesting side to the story is Jack’s friend, author Bill Stevens, who is turning Jack’s old cases into novels, with names changed of course. We are treated to Jack’s alter ego in the fiction novel as he works the case.

There was a nice twist about half way in the book, but all it did was remove one suspect. The writing was excellent, though the story moved at a terribly slow pace. Plus, the author makes some bad mistakes that jumped at me. His main character was a marine lieutenant, and we read this on Page 86: “I did a tour as an officer in the Marine Corps.” Now back on Page 17 we read: “…while all I got as a marine lieutenant were the usual sharpshooter’s and good conduct medals, plus a Purple Heart.”  Commissioned officers do not get the good conduct medal; it’s only given to enlisted men, and after a period of three years being good. With a tour in the marines (3 or 4 years, most likely), there is no mention of him serving as an enlisted man.

Spoiler alert. If you’re planning on reading this book, you should skip this paragraph. The villains of the novel are three millionaires (actually, one is a billionaire). Jack pairs up with a Russian Mafia boss (the first suspect), and they send two Russian triggermen after the bad guys. They kidnap the villains; carry them to a hideaway, where Jack uses his skill as a police interrogator to pry confessions out of them. Good job for a mere advisor, and we know their lawyers won’t sue the Naples police and government body for kidnapping and false imprisonment by the hired advisor and his Russian partner, don’t we? Then they set up the villains’ hit man, and one of the Russians blows his head off. This is all done with the authority of the mayor’s office and the police department. Oh, the villains walk with a stern warning not to have anyone else killed. I guess that’s to keep them from a lawsuit.

I’ve really been disappointed in some releases from Permanent Press lately. Some have left me cold, and it’s discouraging to read books like this. I can’t honestly recommend this one to mystery fans.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories