Really enjoyed this! I was expecting an action-packed story about a cranky, cantankerous curmudgeon, but this was so much lighter and more humorous than I expected. Ex-PI Tony Cassella gets sucked into a murder for hire scheme and things do very differently than expected. This is a fun ride.

Tony Casella is an ex-private eye whose best days are behind him. He ends up entangled in a murder-for-hire plot through a chance encounter on a train. As he tries to tie up the situation without actually having to murder anyone, he gets drawn deeper into outlandish schemes and even foreign espionage. Tony Casella is a fun character to spend time with, and there is a lot of humor in the book. This is the first book I have read from Larry Beinhart, but I think I'll spend some time checking out his books after reading this one. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Larry Beinhart is a must read for anyone who likes intelligent , funny, thoughtful, semi-meta, crime/thriller fiction. And sexy stuff to boot. Beinhart is one of those gems whose every book is well written, different, and just plain interesting. And he is a great story teller—did I mention that. This book about a killer for hire who gets wrapped up in all kinds of foreign and domestic spy/political and criminal enterprises is just great fun. And there’s some deep stuff too but not too much to derail the story. Read this book and read his others. They’re all great. Discover him-do yourself a favor.

What starts out as a simple murder-for-hire novel soon multiplies in its complexity as the protagonist is pulled in to far more than he anticipated. A master of character and plot development, the author has another great story to tell.