Thu 27 Dec 2018
JERRY KENNEALY – Polo Solo. Nick Polo #1. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 1987; paperback, February 1988.
After posting an old review by Barry Gardner of Beggar’s Choice, the ninth in Jerry Kennealy’s Nick Polo series, I decided I had to read one for myself. There are eleven in total, and for whatever reason, I’d missed them all.
This is the one I found, and I’m glad I did. Read it, that is. This was a good one. I don’t why the Nick Polo books have never been any better known than they have, which is as far as I know, is not at all.
This one begins with Polo being freed from the prison he’s been in — there’s obviously a small story there — and his license restored by a political operative who has the clout to do so. Why? The mayor of San Francisco, female, has been photographed doing a porno movie, and she’s being blackmailed.
It was a rigged up job, of course, but the publicity? Devastating. There are some mean streets in San Francisco, and with an opening like this one, you just know that Polo is going to go down some of them, and he does. He also runs across the path of one of the toughest and meanest villains in PI history, and as they say, Polo is lucky to get out of this one alive.
He’s tough enough, though, and street savvy enough, that his coming out on top is totally believable. I enjoyed this one, and I’ll be looking out for more.
December 27th, 2018 at 3:12 pm
This book is available in Kindle form for .99 cents.
December 27th, 2018 at 4:05 pm
At that price, definitely a bargain.
December 27th, 2018 at 5:12 pm
I read this one, and can’t remember why I didn’t follow up on the series. Maybe it was just on the cusp of the period when I was overloaded on private eyes.
December 27th, 2018 at 8:36 pm
In my case, not only was there an oversupply of PI novels at the time, but most of them came out in paperback, and not many of the Polo books ever did.
December 28th, 2018 at 12:12 am
Here’s some information about Jerry Kennealy, taken from his Amazon author’s page:
“Jerry Kennealy, a native San Franciscan, has worked as a policeman and as a licensed private investigator in the City by the Bay.
“In 2017, Jerry was award the Private Eye Writers of America Life Achievement Award. He has written twenty-three novels, including a series featuring private eye Nick Polo, two of which were nominated for a Shamus Award. The eleventh in the series, Polo’s Long Shot, was published by Down & Out Press in July of 2017.
“His next novel, Dirty Who? – a thriller set in San Francisco at the time that they were filming Dirty Harry, will be published in the Spring of 2018.
“He is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America.
“Jerry lives in San Bruno, California, with his wife and in-house editor, Shirley.”
December 28th, 2018 at 12:19 pm
I’ve never seen these POLO mysteries before reading your review. I’ll track the first few down and give them a try. Like David, the late 1980s featured dozens of Private Eye novels. Who could keep up with them…only you!
December 28th, 2018 at 4:36 pm
The 80s and 90s was a Golden Age of PI fiction, no doubt about it.