Sat 6 Sep 2014
A Review by Walter Albert: JOHN LESLIE – Night and Day.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[4] Comments
JOHN LESLIE – Night and Day. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1995. Pocket Books, paperback, 1996.
This is the second of four mysteries featuring Gideon Lowry, a jazz pianist and private investigator based in Key West. His brother committed suicide at the end of the first book and Gideon’s girl friend (Casey) has moved to Miami.
A visiting singer named Asia (with lips the color of plum) hires Gideon to locate her estranged husband, a writer obsessed with Hemingway. This is a not inappropriate obsession in Key West with the annual Hemingway Days celebration and the Hemingway house, which is open to the public as a museum. Gideon finds the missing husband, but he’s soon killed and Asia looks like a prime suspect.
The novel (like the other three) is heavy with sultry heat and the perfume of whatever produces heavy scents In Key West. A nice series of grace notes on the 1990s private eye scene.
The Gideon Lowry series —
Killing Me Softly (1995)
Night And Day (1995)
Love For Sale (1996)
Blue Moon (1998)
September 6th, 2014 at 6:17 pm
The first couple of these were at the top of my To Be Read pile for a long time, but they never got read and the pile shifted elsewhere. It is hard to believe that the first in this series came out nearly 20 years ago.
September 6th, 2014 at 7:17 pm
I may look these up, I like the song title theme, and if they are half as interesting as the covers — I think I by passed these originally for fear my head would explode if I read one more series set in Florida or the Keys.
September 7th, 2014 at 7:55 am
Tom Corcoran’s Alex Rutledge series is OK as far as the mysteries go but gives a good picture of Key West.
September 7th, 2014 at 11:27 am
I enjoyed the first book in the series. The enjoyment wasn’t there in the second for me. I quit reading it about a third of the way through. Never bought the third and fourth. I agree with Jeff that the sense of place was very strong.