Lincoln Perry
Created by Michael Koryta

It's tempting to simply rag on author Michael Koryta's age (or lack of it), but that would just be too easy. I mean, how dare this twenty-one year old kid win the 2003 St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America Prize for Best First P.I. Novel? But Lord knows, a bunch of us old-timers already took our shots at this young whippersnapper at the 2004 Bouchercon in Toronto (and a good time was had by all), so I guess I'll have to actually talk about his book instead.

And I hate to break it to you, but the damn thing's pretty good. Okay, it's not great – Koryta has the typical novice writer's tendency to overwrite on occasion, while at other times the prose slows down to a crawl, and a few of the coincidences feel a little too much like cheating. Still, the story, about Cleveland gumshoe Lincoln Perry and his retired cop partner Joe Pritchard tracking down the missing wife and daughter of a fellow private detective who may (or may not) have committed suicide, is a solid one.

Impulsive, thirty-something Perry is an ex-cop left the department under a bit of a cloud, and tends to shoot off his mouth and jump to conclusions, but is often held in check by the older (and probaly wiser) Pritchard.. They run their agency from out of al old bank building, and make an interesting team. I'm looking forward to where Koryta plans to take them.

Koryta may not be breaking much new ground, but underneath the typical hardboiled shenanigans (Sex! Violence! Russian gangsters!), there's a definite heart beating, and a few powerfully wrenching scenes you won't soon forget (you'll never look at a melting snowman quite the same way again). Koryta's confident and respectful handling of the genre's conventions and traditions, his willingness to dig beneath the surface and make his characters come alive, not to mention his apparent compassion for them, bodes well for the future. I may be wrong, but it looks like we've got a brave new voice in the private eye genre here. Damn.

NOVELS

• Tonight I Said Goodbye (2004)....Buy this book
• Sorrow's Anthem (2006). Buy this book
• A Welcome Grave (2007).. Buy this book

RELATED LINKS

• Tonight I Said Goodbye
  The Thrilling Detective Web Site Review by James R. Winter

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.