An IRS investigator turned PI searching for the owner of an inheritance that will go to the government if he is not found in 30 days. That's a good recipe for a fast-paced thriller, in this case, packed with humor, which made a huge difference. I have not read the previous books in this series but I'll be looking forward to reading them, they are different!!!
Thank you, NetGalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Gumshoe in the dark - Rob Leininger

Sorry I didn’t get to finish the book as it expired before I got the chance.

Being unfamiliar with this PI series I was treated to a wild hilarious ride through Nevada! I am definitely going to visit the earlier Gumshoe books!

this was a great mystery novel, I really enjoyed going on this journey and trying to figure out what happened.

Rob Leininger's GUMSHOE IN THE DARK is quick-witted, smart, and entertaining. Throughout this gripping, twisty story, Mortimer Angel is his wry, snappy-talking self whether encountering a damsel in distress, finding bodies in trunks, or outwitting danger as a private investigator in training. This book was a fantastic escape into a different time, a different place (Nevada), with a stellar cast of well-drawn characters -- exactly what I love in a noir mash-up. I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I wanted to like this, but I found the characters mostly unlikeable. The forced attempts at flirtation/sexual tension from the damsel in distress, the constant reassurances from our gumshoe that he is totally cool, the reminders that everything in the story happens because he is the luckiest (or unluckiest) person ever. The bones of the story were interesting enough, I just found myself skipping over every time our damsel-in-this-dress (well, that skirt actually) opened her mouth. It just fell short of its attempt to be amusing in my opinion.

I received an ARC, but my opinions are all mine.

If you've never read any circa 1930's noir, your appreciation of the noir snark in the Mortimer Angel series will be diminished. I'm talking Dashiell Hammett's five novels RED HARVEST, THE DAIN CURSE, THE MALTESE FALCON, THE GLASS KEY, and THE THIN MAN. These classics are the basis for the dark, smoky, black and white movies still watched today. Who can forget Humphrey Bogart as the inimitable Sam Spade? Turns out that Spade is one of Mort's idols along with Mike Hammer.

GUMSHOE IN THE DARK has all the requisite elements… the beautiful dame (Mort often calls her kiddo), the mystery, and the favorite watering hole. Rob Leininger weaves a tale of murder, blackmail, and treachery that keeps you turning pages well past bedtime and a last page that makes you want another book. When writing a review, never put in spoilers. Everyone should have the pleasure of puzzling out just what is happening knowing no more than that Mort was an IRS field agent who found his soul and decided to become a PI. I mean, why not?

I continue to be impressed with the facility with which Leininger manages to retell the cases in the previous books as part of the conversations Mort has with new characters. I find this preferable to the usual introductory chapter that recounts the last case (which, should you be reading the series in order, you can pretty much skip over). Mort's natural, conversational recaps work well and remind readers that continuity matters.

Do read the Mortimer Angel series in order. Do pay attention to the titles for you will find the title somewhere in the text… usually as a musing by Mort. They're kind of like Easter eggs in a video game.

#2 in the Mortimer Angel saga.

Mort is still trying to become a PI after dumping his career as an IRS agent. As in the initial book (Gumshoe), Mort is divorced, drinks too much, hangs out at the Reno casinos, sort of stumbles into a knack for attracting women, cracks shit on anyone who unlucky enough to exchange two sentences with him, and constantly belittles his lack of PI street cred.

He has to put in a ton of ‘internship’ hours to get a Nevada PI license. Tracking cheaters is a bogus assignment, but you do what you gotta do. The Reno mayor’s wife thinks her hubby is running around on her. Mort tracks the mayor to his paramour’s bed, which turns out to be Mort’s ex-wife. Then the mayor disappears. Then the Reno DA disappears. A basic case of a husband cheating morphs into a missing person’s case that takes one bizarre turn after another. But that doesn’t interfere with his luck with the women.
While trying to track down the mayor and the DA is a monotonous series of

(bizarre) steps, when the solution to the disappearances becomes apparent, the plodding and complicate nature of the investigation takes a violent and intense finale. The result being that Mort becomes a media darling, something that PIs in training just don’t get.

Gotta love Mortimer. Mr. Angel is who most readers would like to be: smart, sarcastic (to the nth degree), self-deprecating, and a killer with the women. The story is sort of complicated, but not hard to follow. And I doubt any reader will find fault with the dialogue. We all should have his wit. A terrific break from the ordinary crime procedural. Could be a standalone, but if you have the option, read Gumshoe first.

ECD

What is apparently meant as amusing situations and banter is tiresomely repetitious and juvenile. The plot is very slow to get going and is sometimes hindered by the amount of detail about what people are wearing or eating or what a piece of furniture looks like. As the plot picks up speed it gets better. The fact that I didn't enjoy the book doesn't mean others wouldn't and because of that I'll give it three stars.

Rob Leininger’s Gumshoe In The Dark is book #5 in the Mortimer Angel PI series and NO I haven’t read any other book in the series but was perfectly able to follow Mort and his investigation.

Investigative thrillers are definitely not funny books but when you have authors who manage to write them with humor making the story so hilarious that half the time you are clutching your tummy coz of the stitches on your side, I would say that the author’s job is surely done. It is an incredible talent to see the funny side of certain scenes which are otherwise quite grim. Imagine opening the trunk of a car and finding a dead body and all one can think of is Mort’s inner monologue about once again being infamous for having found a missing dead person. Obviously, the scene becomes 1000 shades lighter with that, and the reader is left chuckling instead of depressed and that is just one example in the book.

The story in its entirety is filled with such scenes where humor reigns but hides the intriguing puzzle of chasing one case and ending with a more dangerous one that has Mort traveling the lonely roads of Nevada with a skimpily dressed Harper Leland on technically 2 ½ tires. Mortimer Angel comes across as this lovable cuddly bear who is pulled and pushed by females around him but is anything but. He is incredibly shrewd and brilliant and ready to take on the world to save the love of his life, Lucy, from any harm. The first part of the book was slow going establishing the basic details of both the cases but once the action begins, it was a whirlwind ride. I loved the character of Ma, the lady has such spunk and is ruthless to the core.

Definitely, a series to enjoy if you love puzzling mysteries, hot girls, and a PI who goes into Zen-mode with all the nakedness on display.

Understated brilliance ☂️☂️☂️☂️

Many thanks to Net Galley, Oceanview Publishing, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

This review is published in my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India, Medium.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

I love a good cat and mouse and, frankly, a good one can be hard to find. This is a good one. Kept my interest all the way through and ended satisfactorily. The characters were interestingly drawn, complex and real. The plot was believable (for fiction). All in a all a great read.

This book really wasn't for me. The plot felt like it was meandering and very little was going on at times. Mort, the main character, felt two-dimensional. The humor felt sexist. There was a lot of attention given to how little clothing the female secondary character was wearing as well as how hot she looked. I felt that the relationship between Harper and Mort was unbelievable and wasn't really fleshed out. The gruesome bits were well done and were some of the strongest parts of this book. The pacing was also great. Despite there being some good moments, a lot of this book didn't work well for me.

I would like to thank Oceanview Publishing for providing me with an ARC.

*Thank you to NetGalley, Oceanview Publishing and Rob Leininger for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/gumshoe-in-the-dark/

Mortimer Angel worked sixteen years for the IRS as a field investigator. Fed up, he has decided to become a private investigator out of his nephew’s office in Reno, Nevada. He longs to be a modern day “Sam Spade” but what Mortimer Angel is, could only be called unique. He has a humorous voice that makes you laugh and cringe at the same moment.

Currently, he is trying to find a lost heir to a $680,000 fortune. He has 30 days to find the recipient, or the money goes to no-kill animal shelters. On his way to Las Vegas on a tip from a relative, Mort encounters Harper Leeman, a barely dressed hitchhiker who he stops to help, and she pulls a gun on him. Harper Leeman, in deference to Harper Lee, is alone on a rural road 30 miles from anywhere. As she tries to hijack his rental car, he cuts a valve stem and all the tires go flat. What could go wrong? Well, it turns out, the spare is flat as well. As Mort and Harper try to get along, they take the journey to Ely on three wheels in a very uncomfortable situation, with him sitting on his lap to balance the truck.

Gumshoe in the Dark is a laugh-out-loud hilarious mystery, which makes it difficult to swallow the gravity of some situations in the book. Mort seems to have a knack for finding dead bodies and body parts, and he doesn’t disappoint in this book. It is just so fun to read. Strong women, including his wife, his boss, and his new cohort; Harp also surrounded him. While Mort likes to portray himself as well mannered and inept, he is actually very smart and can be devious.

There is also a ton of crude humor, which can be funny but almost goes overboard. Mort and Harp seem to spend a lot of the book naked. Talking about being naked, or partially naked, which can be off-putting but is done humorously. There is quite a lot of discussion about body parts. Gumshoe in the Dark is the fifth book in the Mortimer Angel series and I am intrigued and delighted at finding this new character and series. There are some references to previous books in the series, but it is easy to follow along.

Thoroughly enjoyed this P.I novel.
I haven’t read any of the previous Gumshoe novels, I certainly will be now though.
The plot was really good, there’s a gruesome scene or two, but definitely necessary and I don’t think over the top.
Very well written and so easy to read and get carried away with the story. I love the banter between Mort, he is the PI, and Harper, the women he picks up in the rain in his truck, sometimes it doesn’t pay to pick up someone on the highway, you never know what is going to happen.
Thanks to Netgalley and Oceanview publishing for this eARC in return for a voluntary review.
Mort and Harper certainly made me laugh a lot.

The latest entry in the Mortimer Angel, P.I. (in training) series is heavy on the screwball comedy and light on the actual mystery. That happens in this series which is about a former IRS agent who chucked his old life to live out his fantasy of becoming a real private detective and, to the surprise of just about everyone, it all came true... Sort of.

For reasons which are not exactly clear Mort has become a babe magnet (yes, it's a sexist, and dated term but, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, it absolutely applies to the situation), plus he has developed a knack for discovering missing persons of great notoriety. Actually he has developed a knack for discovering pieces of missing persons of great notoriety.

To sum up - Mortimer Angel keeps bumbling into high profile cases despite his best efforts and having women falling for him in spite of his romantic ineptness. It's really a lot of fun.

This one is more of an off-beat "road comedy" than anything else, there is a murder mystery and it is pretty serious but it makes up a fraction of the overall tale. Don't jump in looking for "the point" of the story or waiting for it to kick in gear, this is a series where the journey is the story and the destination is just a happenstance. Think screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.

This is the fifth book in the series, since I've read them all with varying degrees of appreciation I feel confident in saying that this is a lesser effort. Fun but overlong and beats a few dead horses. You don't have to be familiar with the other books in the series but it would absolutely make a difference.

There is adult language and situations but none of it is too extreme. Easily within a PG-13 rating.

*** I received a free digital copy of this title from NetGalley.

I received a free electronic ARC of this great mystery novel on June 3, 2021, from Netgalley, Rob Leininger, and Oceanview Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Leininger writes a tight, tidy tale with sly tugs at humor. This is the fifth in a series but stands alone. There are enough references to past cases that compel you to find them, however. He is an author I will want to follow.

Mortimer Angel was for sixteen years a field thug for the IRS. When he got fed up with that, he decided to become a private investigator working out of his nephew's office in Reno, Nevada. He pictured a second career as a 'modern-day Sam Spade.' Or at least something like it. This case is an attempt to find a lost heir to a healthy fortune. He has still got 25 days of the 30 allowed for the 'lost boy' to file with the court or the money will all go to various no-kill shelters and animal rescue sites around the state. Seems Auntie knew the lost boy well. Mort is beginning to, as well. On his way to Las Vegas on a tip from a relative, Mort encounters a hitchhiker, a scantily dressed female named Harper who tries to hijack his ride. Things begin early on to get very complicated. And extremely compelling reading, late into the night. This is a series I will have to binge on. Hope you enjoy it, as well.
Pub June 1, 2021
received June 3, 2021
Reviewed on June 19, 2021, at Goodreads and Netgalley.

This is the fifth in the author's "Gumshoe" series, and my first; it stands alone quite well, in part because a fair amount of page time is devoted to reminisces, I guess you'd say, of events I assume took place in previous installments that gave me some idea of what went on before.

In this one, what's going on is plenty. Former IRS agent Mortimer Angel, now training to become a fully licensed private detective in Nevada, has set out to find a wayward young man who has become, unbeknownst to him, heir to a small fortune. On the road to find him and many miles from anything close to civilization, he can't resist stopping to help the beautiful Harper Leland, who's scantily clad and stranded in the rain. When she tries to hijack his truck, Mort quickly snips off a valve on one of the tires - effectively bringing her to a stop. When they learn the spare tire is flat as well, they have to get creative to get going or else spend the night on a lonely stretch of road.

Realizing that they may be being followed, Mort concludes that Harper may be central to some of the suspicious things that seen to be happening to them (although she denies it). Amid all this, the state attorney general has gone missing and two teenagers have been murdered - with no connection that anyone has found. Mort stays on track to humor Harper and keep looking for the soon-to-be-rich kid while his mentor Maude Clary, an older woman who rules the office with an iron mouth, warns Mort over and over that if he finds another dead body (or any parts thereof), he's fired.

Despite all of Mort's efforts, of course, he and Harper find mayhem and mayhem returns the favor - resulting in Mort's wife Lucy, who's got serious chops of her own in a number of areas (and inexplicably, more than willing to join in with the getting-naked jibes) meeting up with them. All three get stuck in some impossibly dangerous situations covered with plenty of blood and gore and only Mort's aforementioned creativity - combined with a few almost unbelievable contortions by Lucy - can hope to save them. Can they find out what's really going on before at least one of them bites the dust? I'll never tell, so if you want to find out, you'll just have to read the book (just for the record, I always advise starting at the beginning with any series, but you won't be disappointed if you opt for this one).

Although I enjoyed this book overall, I must mention that after the first couple of chapters I grew weary of the unrelenting risque repartee between Mort and Harper. Yes, he's a healthy male and she's wearing dripping wet next to nothings, but he's also married, in his mid-40s and she's a five-year schoolteacher - both well beyond the years when bathroom banter is age-appropriate, at least in my mind. For a while, it was sort of amusing; but when it was still outdoing the Energizer Bunny at the 25% mark, I literally said to myself, "Okay - I'll give it one more chapter and if it doesn't stop, I will." Since you're reading this, it did - at least enough that I could find an actual plot to follow that was both interesting and intriguing. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

That was good, different! Mortimer (Mort) Angel is a PI in training. His boss, the 60-odd year old Maude Clary (Ma) is as hard boiled as they come. I didn’t know this was a series and that this is book 4, but it doesn’t matter, it reads well as a stand alone which is what I thought it was until the blurb at the end! Mort has a talent for finding dead bodies or parts thereof for which Ma regularly threatens to fire him.

In this book he is to locate one Elrood Wintergarden who has inherited a considerable sum of money, but Elrood is leading him on a merry chase around Nevada as he scams money out of gullible young women before skipping to the next town and doing the same again. If only he knew...but chance would be a fine thing. While Mort is heading to Elrood’s last known location he stops to pick up a female hitchhiker. She is skimpily dressed and it is pouring rain. Now get your mind out if the gutter - Mort is a true gentleman and is happily married as he tells young Harper Leeman. Wait -who? Could it be the same Leeman whose mother disappeared a few days ago? Annette Leeman the Nevada Attorney General? Of course it is. And they have a very eventful trip to the next town.

Soon they realise that a rather large man in a black pickup truck is following them. Mort rightly suspects he is after Harper because of who her mother is. So begins their cat and mouse trek across Nevada every which way as they try to locate Elrood and avoid the man in the black pickup. Harper stays with Mort as he feels she will be safer. Mort’s wife, Lucy, has gone to California to be with her mother for a medical procedure. But in true hard boiled fashion the bodies soon start to mount up and Mort and Harper and later Lucy herself fall victim to the pickup man and his even badder (according to him) brother who is ex SAS.

You will laugh when you learn how Lucy gets them out of this pickle. But there are more pickles to come. I have to admit that I wasn’t too fond of Harper to start with but she soon grew on me. Mort is a real good guy but not a wimp, he would be a good husband which of course he is, to Lucy. She is a hoot and Ma, well, she is a law unto herself. The book was very entertaining with crisp, snappy dialogue a feature. It almost got a bit much at times but once the pickling started it got very suspenseful and the focus was more on the action than the witty repartee! I think I would call this a comedy thriller. Although there was death and danger it was not a dark book and there were no animals (other than the human kind) harmed. It was quite funny at times and I think it would appeal to a broad cross section of people. I received an advance review copy from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Not a book I particularly liked but perhaps it will appeal to others. I did not finish it. It would help to read the others in the series.

Set in Nevada, this book is very...unique. Really like the original witticisms and humorous bits. The author definitely has a particular way with words, the first sentence especially!

Soon-to-be-PI Mortimer Angel driving his truck encounters a woman wearing a brief cm of clothing on the road. The rain is pelting down so he offers her a ride. The first chunk of the book describes the awkwardness and weirdness which ensues as she settles in for the ride. After she first tries to steal his truck, of course. But he prevents that from happening and this act is the catalyst to much of the story. Harper is rather direct with words and actions which get them into all sorts of pickles.

The attorney general with a link to Harper is found dead in a car trunk and adds twists to the case Mortimer is on. Lucy, Mortimer's new wife, is also forced into the debacle. I didn't love the relationship between Mortimer and Harper. I realize it was intended to be light and humorous but to me it just wasn't funny or believable. Perhaps reading other books in the series would have given me a better understanding of the characters' fit and roles. I came late to the game as this is my first introduction to Mortimer Angel et. al. I will try others by this author. Sometimes it takes a second or third book to get hooked!

My sincere thank you to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this fun book.