Milan Jacovich
Created by Les Roberts

Cleveland's the stomping ground for tough, likeable, blue collar private eye MILAN JACOVICH, an ordinary joe kinda guy, in this solid series. He's an ex-football player, well-educated, and fiercely proud of his Slovenian heritage, his working class roots and his hometown. In fact, Jacovich almost does for Cleveland what Spenser does for Boston. Alas, it's still Cleveland.

And Roberts' emphasis on Milan being just an average joe almost backfires -- he ends up being almost too average.

Fortunately, roberts himself is an above-average writer, and the series, in its solid, dependable way has moved from strength to strength with each new novel. His efforts to deal with being a divorced father, as well as his efforts to get back into the dating scene, humanize him in a way few P.I. series dare. They're well-written, and carefully plotted, with always believable characters. And, as a specialist in industrial security, they're also often quite challenging, presenting us with some tasty moral and ethical dilemmas. Highly recommended.

Author Les Roberts was born and bred in Chicago, but currently lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He moved there from Hollywood, where, among other things, he produced The Hollywood Squares. He's a past president of the Private Eye Writers of America, where his first book, about private eye/novelist/actor Saxon, was the very first winner of the St. Martin's Press/PWA Best First P.I. Novel Contest.

NOVELS

• Pepper Pike (1988)
• Full Cleveland (1989)
• Deep Shaker (1991)
• The Cleveland Connection (1993). Buy this book
• The Lake Effect (1994) .Buy this book
• The Duke Of Cleveland (1995)
• Collision Bend (1996). Buy this book
• Cleveland Local (1997). Buy this book
• A Shoot in Cleveland (1998). Buy this book
• The Best Kept Secret (1999). Buy this book
• The Indian Sign (2000). Buy this book
• The Dutch (2001)..Buy this book
• The Irish Sports Pages (2002)...Buy this book
• King of the Holly Hop (2008) ...Buy this book

SHORT STORIES

• "The Gathering of the Klan" (2000, The Shamus Game)
• "Jazz Canary" (2004, Murder... and All That Jazz)

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.