DETECTIVE PETER HIGGINS AND THE ENIGMA OF SHADOWS

In Gimba’s mystery novel, a private investigator juggles an amnesiac client and futuristic technology.

Peter Higgins has fond memories of Uncle Nigel, though he didn’t know him well; it’s surprising that he willed the bulk of his estate to his nephew. Peter, who works as a private investigator in Portland, Oregon, learns a lot about his uncle—apparently Nigel, a “mad scientist” with roughly 100 patents, had tinkered with a giant robot, a “saucer-shaped object,” and other oddities. Nigel’s assistant Kiko Grainger-Yamasaki, who lives in Nigel’s (now Peter’s) house, asks the PI to look into his uncle’s ostensibly accidental death, which she’s convinced was a murder. Peter already has a case lined up involving a woman with a briefcase full of cash who can’t remember anything about herself. Temporarily dubbing the woman “Jane Doe,” the PI sets out to discover who she is. Further complicating matters, thugs grab Peter and demand he reveal where “the item” is, but he has no idea what they’re referring to. The detective’s easygoing first-person, present-tense narration sets the tone for Gimba’s mystery; Peter tends to roll with the punches (even the literal ones) and keep a firm grasp on his wits and wittiness. His life becomes entertainingly chaotic as yet another case—following a regular client’s wife suspected of infidelity—is added to the mix and takes an unexpected turn. This keeps things moving, but the narrative bounces from subplot to subplot without truly focusing on any one of them. Even Nigel’s astonishing technology is detailed superficially or not at all (“I won’t bore you with the next part,” Peter assures the reader at one point). Still, it’s fun to watch the titular hero unravel mysteries, either through deduction or sheer chance, and the final act delivers a satisfying wrap-up.

This gleefully offbeat detective story blends genres with irreverence.