I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of escapism and my time out from a hectic world. The story grabs you from the outset and pulls you in and the storytelling really made it worth reading. Characterisation was on point and I know I will be looking out for new publications from this author or similar in the future. A thrilling, recommended read.

P.I. Dek Elstrom is no fool. When notorious skinflint Herb "Herbie Sunshine" Sunheim is suddenly willing to spend big money for an easy job, Dek Elstrom is the man for that job. Then Herbie disappears and the job takes on a life of its own that leads to death. Now Dek is in over his head and desperately trying to find Herbie before things get really bad.

Set in the (fictional) Chicago suburb of Rivertown, a crooked little town run by an extended family of small town swindlers, Tagged for Murder is a fun addition to a great series featuring P. I. Dek Elstrom. Dek is a local kid who moved away to the big city to become a success then had to come running back with his tail between his legs when his life fell apart. Now he lives in a turret that is all that's left of his grandfather's dream of building a castle, barely getting by and doing his best to agitate the city fathers.

Fans of Donald E. Westlake's more humorous stuff might find this one particularly appealing. It doesn't take itself too serious but it's got an edge to it as well.

I really liked this one - plenty of action, good story-line, plot twists, a rising body-count, a sympathetic main character - you never know what's in store for Dek as he investigates a death of an unknown man found atop an abandoned railway car.

I didn't realise, at the time of reading, it was the seventh in the series - usually this can present a problem as the reader is not familiar with the back story or oft times references to previous stories in the series - however, in this instance (for me anyway) - there was no issue. I am now more inclined to go back and track down previous tomes.

Tagged for murder by Jack Fredrickson.
The dead man is found spread-eagled on the top of a box car on an abandoned rail siding. He’s dressed in a $2000 suit, yet half his teeth are rotten and his skin is bad. Who was he … and how did he end up there?
When he’s offered an exorbitant fee to photograph the scene, PI Dek Elstrom doesn’t ask many questions. But his photos reveal something surprising: there’s a witness to the murder, a tagger who’s returned to the scene to paint what he saw. His work quickly disappears. What is it that the mysterious graffiti artist wants the world to know?
Then a second body shows up – and the case takes a shocking new twist …
A slow but good read with likeable characters .
4*.

Tagged for Murder
by Jack Fredrickson

Full of twists, and written to keep the reader engaged to the very last page. Tagged for Murder will keep you guessing who the good guys are and who is killing who.

Elstrom is a PI in Chicago who is hired to take photos of a murder site. As he digs for more, his client goes missing, and more bodies start to appear.

The characters, particularly Elstrom are well developed, and the plot paints a picture for the reader. Well written and edited.

An easy read mystery, that keeps the reader engaged.

#TaggedForMurder #NetGalley

www.books-reviewed.weebly.com


…

A murder mystery with laughs along the way.

This is the seventh book in a series and, not having read any of the previous books, I was a little lost at times. It also meanders somewhat in parts. However, overall, I found it an interesting read.

Dek is the lead character who gets pulled into a mystery when a man is found dead on top of a Boxcar. He's wearing an expensive suit, but, his teeth are rotten.....then there's the 'tagged' artwork of the title, someone is trying to draw attention to the death / murder...

The story is told in the style of an old gumshoe tv show, with humour, pathos and heartbreak and I enjoyed it.

Thanks to net galley and Severn House publishing for the opportunity to preview this book.

First Sentence: Only Keller, of the gamy Argus-Observer, thought to write that the man found dead on top of the railcar, the end of that February, had died in a leap year.

The body of a man in an expensive suit but whose teeth and body indicate someone who has been living on the street, is found in a railroad siding on top of a box car. PI Dek Elstrom is hired by a realtor to take photos, ones that the police have already taken, and paid twice as much as they originally agreed. As people disappear, including the realtor, a tagger becomes important, a building destroyed, and Dek ends up needing the resources of his friend Leo’s large freezer. Dek also has to stay alive and out of jail.

What an effective description of the problems of violence in Chicago, and in most large cities—“Chicago’s once-mighty gangs crumbled, devolving into smaller and smaller groups, until at last they fragmented into block-based, murderous little boys’ clubs, having nothing much to do except shoot at each other.”

In contrast to that is Dek’s relationship with Amanda, his wealthy ex-wife with benefits. She’s not there just for romance. She is a character with a purpose who contributes to the plot. Leo Brumsky, his girlfriend, and his mother with her septuagenarian friends do provide a note of lightness, but Leo is not a character to be underestimated. Additionally, Fredrickson has created for Dek an interesting, and unusual assortment of additional supporting characters. It is so important to have characters who grow and develop, and Fredrickson has done that with his characters. All the characters series readers have come to know are here, along with their eccentricities. Some are not the type one necessarily brings home for holiday dinners, but they are certainly useful and add colour to the plot.

That there is the introduction of suspense and danger which comes seemingly out of nowhere is very effective. Even though the body count rises, the violence is done off page and, therefore, not graphic to the reader. Fredrickson builds the story well. The question of who Dek can trust is effective and leaves one guessing along with Dek. One doesn’t know where the plot is going, but one is definitely going along for the ride.

Fredrickson writes dialogue well, and it’s often tinged with humor—“’I’m at the eastern edge of your marvelous little town, at a place called The Hamburger. They don’t have hamburgers on the menu. It’s a fried fish place.’ The place changes hands rapidly, but every new owner keeps the sigh to save costs. There’s little enthusiasm for fine dining in Rivertown.’ ‘Come by. I’ll buy you a fish’ he said. ‘Don’t order until I get there.’ ‘Fish sounds good,’ he said. ‘There’s concern they snag the slowest of them from the Willahock.’ ‘How slow?’ Some just floating on their sides.’”

“Tagged for Murder” has suspense, misdirection, twists, humor, and a plot to which one must pay attention. This is a more serious book than those which precede it. It is, perhaps, the best in the series so far.

TAGGED FOR MURDER (PI-Dek Elstrom-Chicago Area, IL-Contemp) – VG+
Fredrickson, Jack – 9th in series
Severn House – May 2018

I had not read any of the preceding novels so I was a bit at sea initially but quickly decided that it would be best to just follow the story. This is a mystery with a comic gang of friends. Who is Herbie and why does he pay Dek to take photographs- and then disappear? The underside of Chicago property development and corruption collides with graffiti artists and the homeless. Who are the good guys? Not my favorite but I suspect those who are fans of Fredrickson will like it very much. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Some of the elements in the life of Dek Elstrom carried so much weight that they began to annoy me; such was the case with Dek's almost non-existent cash flow attributed to his private investigation business. Too much attention focused on something such as that can be distracting for me. I begin to want to help Dek (or any other character) find a way to make some money so they can afford the basics of life - like food. This is my first time reading any books from this series so I'm not sure if Dek is always totally devoid of worldly goods but I'm afraid it feels that way. However, there were other aspects of this novel that surprised me and made me enjoy it quite a lot more than I had expected. Dek has some really odd friends he has known since childhood and those oddities are used to great purpose within the plot. With Dek's familiarity with Chicago I got a personalized view of that now troubled city. When seen from the vantage point of corruption on all levels of government the plot of the mystery begins to take on the appearance of something not quite as fantastic as it would seem. All of these elements came together to give me an enjoyable reading experience.

Dek is hired to go to the scene of a murder and take pictures of the scene of the crime. Things don't seem to make much sense to Dek but it's for sure those investigating this death seem to be very eager to just mark it down as the death of an unidentified victim and close the book. When Dek receives double the offered fee in cash in an envelope all the pinpricks of suspicion begin to beg to be investigated.

I would call this an off-beat mystery with some silly escapades thrown in that might make you smile but which don't further the mystery in any way. What they do is deepen the sense of community in this corner of Chicago. I read this as an exploration of an author whose work I was unfamiliar with. Only time will tell if I'm tempted to read another Dek Elstrom book to help connect more of the dots of his unusual life.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House Publishing for the digital galley of this novel.

Not my type of book

This is the 7th book in the Dek Elstrom series and, for me, this fact made it very difficult to understand the plot. Dek is a second-rate private investigator. It would appear that he has divorced his wife and almost become an alcoholic so will take on almost any job.

A body has been found on top of a railcar and Dek is hired to take photos of the crime scene by a realtor called Herb Sunheim. Dek receives an unusually large amount of money - unusual in itself from such a source - but then Herb disappears and other bodies begin to surface.

The story hinges around derelict areas with one huge building that appears to have been left untouched. Dek begins to realise that these buildings are going to be used for a drug operation and tries to uncover what appears to be a plan, conceived by people whom no-one, especially the police, can get near. I really found it hard to understand how the various characters fitted into the story.

Various strange characters from Dek’s past, such as Leo Brumsky, are introduced. Leo appears to be trying to introduce goat racing as an entertainment for the locals. These characters have presumably surfaced in some of the earlier books but just appeared as strange to me. Likewise, Dek’s interaction with his ex-wife, Amanda. She is very rich and accompanied everywhere by bodyguards but seems to be seeking out Dek and staying with him. Not knowing any of the backgrounds to their relationship made it difficult for me to understand why she appears to be attracted to him again.

Although the story was finally resolved, again, I did not find this very satisfactory. The one element I did enjoy in this book was the description of the seamy side of Chicago and some of the characters living there but, on the whole, this book was not for me and I will not be reading the previous ones.

Dexter

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

When a body is found on top of a railcar in Chicago, Dek Elstrom is hired to take photographs of the scene, but when people connected to the crime start going missing, he’s pulled into a deeper and much more sinister mystery.

Tagged for Murder is the 7th book is the Dek Elstrom series - I must admit that I haven’t read any of the other books but I’m afraid this one hasn’t really inspired me to pick up any of the others. Although this story can work as a stand-alone, there are some things which will probably work better if you have read more in the series. As a new reader I was quite annoyed that exposition about his past, his living conditions and his wife came at 69% of the way through the book – regular readers would have known all this already so it wouldn’t have mattered where it was placed but for a new reader it just felt way too late. Dek himself also doesn’t particularly seem that strong or interesting a character to have an entire series built around him.

The books do have a great and interesting writing style - it walks a nice balance between the great descriptions of a corrupt and crumbling Chicago city and humour which can be quite absurd in places (goat races, anyone?) However, my main problem with this book was that the plot just didn’t engage me at all. This is a shame as I picked it to read because of its premise from the blurb, despite the fact I hadn’t read any others of the series. A book of this size usually takes me 2 days to finish – Tagged for Murder took me 7 as I lost all impetus to pick it up and keep going with it. I spent the first half of the book being overwhelmed with details and struggling to work out what was going on with a large list of names, suspects and corporations. After 50% of the book I then found myself bored with Dek repeating the plot over and over again to different characters. It seemed like he’d explain what was going on to one character, then a situation would happen that changed something in a small way and he’d be then explaining the entire thing again to someone else. I also didn’t really understand why Dek was making half the decisions he was making – they seemed to be for no other reason than to advance the plot, for example driving around in a really obvious jeep when people are following you and out to kill you certainly isn’t smart! Even the ending didn’t shock or interest me in any way, mainly because I felt nothing for any of the characters, except perhaps Gregorio the goat.

Overall I’m afraid this book did nothing for me –if you have read and enjoyed previous Dek Elstrom mysteries you might get some kind of enjoyment out of it but if you’re a new reader like me it is perhaps not the best one to start on. Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for a chance to read and review Tagged for Murder in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

I read the Kindle edition.

It’s a freezing February in Chicago and a body has been found atop a railcar. How the body got up there, no one knows. Who the man is, no one knows. He is dressed in an expensive suit, but the body doesn’t match the clothes. He has very bad teeth and bites on his body like a homeless person would have. It looks very much like the police have a dead end case on their hands.

Dek Elstrom receives a telephone call from an old client named Herb Sunheim. He wants Dek to take pictures of an old boxcar and the surrounding area. It happens to be the same boxcar where the body was found. Curious, Dek examines the scene. He notices fresh tracks and scrapings on the rails where the boxcar sits. He concludes then that the railcar was sitting directly beneath a window in the old factory called Central Works that sits abandoned there. There is also a crew cleaning new graffiti off of the side of the building. Someone offered them twice the pay to remove it quickly. How odd. What is going on?

Dek has phoned Herbie Sunheim several times, leaving increasingly urgent messages, but he has not called back. That is unlike him. No one is willing to say where he has gone.

The Central Works building is professionally torched. Dek visits the property manager again to put a bug in his ear. He is not welcome. He decides to visit other properties that belong to the Central Works’ owners. He locates a body in one of them.

What follows is Dek’s investigation into what is really going on with Central Works, the property developers and the buildings they just recently bought. And what about Herbie? Dek gets into deep trouble with the killers and has a near-death experience while hiding in the bushes. More deaths occur.

This book is very well written and plotted. I liked the humorous little stories that Mr. Fredrickson adds in places. Septuagenarians in poodle skirts, kidnapped bodies, escapee thoroughbred racing goats and a parking officer with narcolepsy are just some of the more humorous asides in the story. I liked Dek and he seems a competent private investigator – if little troubled by scruples. The tension in the story built slowly, but the book is well paced enough to keep the reader engaged.

I want to thank NetGalley and Severn House for forwarding to me a copy of this great book to read and enjoy.

Dek Elstrom is a Chicago Private Investigator. A dead man is found on top of a box car...dressed in an expensive suit, but otherwise looks homeless. Dek is offered a good fee to photograph the scene after the body is cleared away.

While taking his photographs, he discovers there is witness to the murder .. a tagger who returned to the scene to paint what he saw. The witness disappears before Dek can find out who he is.

When he tries to report his findings to the man who hired him, he's disappeared. Then another body is discovered.

There are twists and turns galore in this mystery thriller. At times it's hard to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys. Dek is a solid character with a handful of colorful friends/cohorts. Tagged For Murder makes a good stand alone even though it's 7th in the series.

Nothing to do with my review .. but the cover certainly caught my eye!

Many thanks to the author / Severn House / Netgalley for the advance digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.