Cooler Than Blood
by Robert Lane
In Lane’s (The Second Letter, 2014) second noir mystery, Floridian detective Jacob “Jake” Travis looks for a missing girl with a troubled past.
Billy Ray Coleman is on the run. He’s got a fortune he stole from his meth-dealing brother, and leaves a trail of assaults in his wake. But when he arrives in Florida and attempts to beat up on teenage runaway Jenny, things don’t go as planned—a recurring theme in dark, noirish mysteries such as this one. After Jenny kills him in self-defense, she disappears, as does the stolen drug money. Because 18-year-old Jenny is legally an adult and has a history of running away, the cops don’t make her disappearance a priority, so her aunt, Susan, turns to Jake to find her. Jake wants to keep his distance from Susan—there’s a powerful attraction between them, and he’s committed to another woman—but he takes the case, even though his usual job is finding lost boats, not lost women. He and his allies trace leads from Florida to Ohio, tangling with everything from hostile local law enforcement to organized crime. Occasional chapters from Jenny’s point of view help flesh out her active character (she’s no damsel in distress), although it comes at the cost of revealing some of the mystery. Still, Lane delivers a confident, engaging Florida tale with a cast of intriguing characters. Jake has a wide range of skilled friends, including a genius delinquent and an FBI contact from a previous case, but there’s no deus ex machina to help him solve the mystery. This ex-military protagonist, in the tradition of the noir detective, is a hard man with a soft side, and readers may find themselves nodding along as a polite gangster notes, “Do you always slip so…effortlessly into violence?” However, one of the book’s most suspenseful moments is when Jake weighs how ruthless he’s willing to be to protect those he loves. Although Jake occasionally delivers over-the-top lines (“I’m going nowhere and getting there fast”), his sense of humor makes him an appealing guide to the seamy side.
A solid, entertaining mystery.
Billy Ray Coleman is on the run. He’s got a fortune he stole from his meth-dealing brother, and leaves a trail of assaults in his wake. But when he arrives in Florida and attempts to beat up on teenage runaway Jenny, things don’t go as planned—a recurring theme in dark, noirish mysteries such as this one. After Jenny kills him in self-defense, she disappears, as does the stolen drug money. Because 18-year-old Jenny is legally an adult and has a history of running away, the cops don’t make her disappearance a priority, so her aunt, Susan, turns to Jake to find her. Jake wants to keep his distance from Susan—there’s a powerful attraction between them, and he’s committed to another woman—but he takes the case, even though his usual job is finding lost boats, not lost women. He and his allies trace leads from Florida to Ohio, tangling with everything from hostile local law enforcement to organized crime. Occasional chapters from Jenny’s point of view help flesh out her active character (she’s no damsel in distress), although it comes at the cost of revealing some of the mystery. Still, Lane delivers a confident, engaging Florida tale with a cast of intriguing characters. Jake has a wide range of skilled friends, including a genius delinquent and an FBI contact from a previous case, but there’s no deus ex machina to help him solve the mystery. This ex-military protagonist, in the tradition of the noir detective, is a hard man with a soft side, and readers may find themselves nodding along as a polite gangster notes, “Do you always slip so…effortlessly into violence?” However, one of the book’s most suspenseful moments is when Jake weighs how ruthless he’s willing to be to protect those he loves. Although Jake occasionally delivers over-the-top lines (“I’m going nowhere and getting there fast”), his sense of humor makes him an appealing guide to the seamy side.
A solid, entertaining mystery.