ROBERT RAY – Bloody Murdock. Matt Murdock #1. St.Martin’s Press, hardcover, 1986. Penguin, paperback, 1987.

   Reference to a “salvage fee” on page 16 suggests that Southern California PI Matt Murdock intends to follow in the footsteps of JDM’s character Travis McGee, In his own words, Murdock is idealistic and a romantic. Here, the death of a young girl arouses his noblest instincts.

   A vivid writing style is vitiated by muddy motivations. Hired [also] as a bodyguard by a nervous man who saw the “accident” [which will cause his death], Murdock is fired when his client opts for blackmail on his own. His second client behaves strangely too, and she gets into a real mess.

— Reprinted from Mystery.File.5, May 1988.

   

The Matt Murdock series —

1. Bloody Murdock (1986)
2. Murdock for Hire (1987)
3. Dial ‘m’ For Murdock (1988)
4. Merry Christmas, Murdock (1989)
5. Murdock Cracks Ice (1992)
6. Murdock Tackles Taos (2013)
7. Murdock Rocks Sedona (2015)