Dave Stanton

Dan Reno is looking forward to a weekend wedding at Caesar’s in Lake Tahoe. Not for the wedding or the casino but for the skiing the day after the wedding. Not many guys get invited to their ex-wife’s niece’s wedding. Still, not all guys are Dan Reno. Desiree McGee is marrying Sylvester Bascom, son of John Bascom, president of the Bascom Lumber Enterprises. But the groom doesn’t go on the honeymoon. He doesn’t even come to the wedding. He’s not missing. He’s dead. The groom’s father hires Dan to bring him the guilty party as he doesn’t have confidence in the local police. The money is irresistible.

I enjoyed the novel, but at times, unnecessary breaks in the storyline became annoying. One example was while a hotel clerk was completing paperwork, Dan read a "thin brochure describing activities in Salina and the city’s history." Thank goodness the brochure was thin, as the paragraph describing the contents of the brochure seemed endless.

I enjoy private investigator mysteries, but I doubt I’ll continue reading the series.… (plus d'informations)

Right Cross by Dave Stanton
Dan Reno #7

Dan Reno has time between jobs taken as a private investigator and in those between times that he is not sleuthing he often works at Zeke’s Pitt, a restaurant that he is part owner of. When he receives a call to meet with people looking for Manuel Alvarez, their nephew, he sends them to Zeke’s and meets with Luis Alvarez and Claudia to determine particulars of the case. With retainer in hand, and a bit of skepticism on his part regarding to Luis and Claudia, he heads out to find Manuel. Little does he know that when he takes this case he will end up traveling to Florida and The Dominican Republic, be charged with manslaughter, work with his buddy Cody (do like Cody) and deal with some reprehensible characters. Dan seems to have a bit more stability in this book as he is now engaged to Candi, a college art professor and daughter of a lawman, and he seems to be settling down. That said, he is still on the job and a force to be reckoned with. I do like this series!

What I liked:
* Dan: he takes on the tough cases and sometimes questions what needs to be done but does it anyway.
* Cody: I really like Cody...he is willing to do just about anything to get the job done and is always there for his buddy Dan. I do hope he eventually finds a bit of peace...and a hot bodacious woman that will be able to keep up with him.
* Candi: She is there for Dan but doesn’t cling...she knows the ropes and keeps a clear head while providing a safe place for Dan to rest/land.
* The fight scenes and learning what a right cross is
* That one of the people I liked managed to “get away” though I have no idea where he ended up.
* The bad guys getting what they deserved...and there were several that deserved more than what they got!

What I did not like:
* The bad guys...I wasn’t supposed to like them and it was easy to hate them

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Will I read more in this series? Definitely!

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (plus d'informations)

The third Dan Reno novel in the series by Dave Stanton, returns us to Lake Tahoe with Dan and his best friend Cody searching for a fugitive who has skipped bail, is on the run in Nevada, and is one of the most dangerous men Reno has yet encountered. With a hardcore drug ring moving into town and attempting to take over the territory from a Mexican cartel, Dan and Cody tick off the wrong people, and are in danger of getting caught in the crossfire.

There are a couple of story lines that feel like they get lost, such as the assassin from the Mexican drug cartel sent to Tahoe to shut down the competing drug ring, who ends up not being as big a part of the story that you expect him to be when he is introduced. The fugitive that Dan and Cody expend so much effort looking for, and who seems to be lurking around every corner waiting to kill them, is almost too easily dealt with.

Despite these weaknesses in the story, Speed Metal Blues continues to develop Dan Reno in a way that makes you want to follow him, know more, and see what scrapes he can get himself out of. This third book in the Dan Reno series is an effort worthy of the first, Stateline, and makes up for the shortcomings in Dying for the High Life.… (plus d'informations)

The second in the Dan Reno series, Dying for the High Life, is an interesting second effort from Dave Stanton. Much more violent than the first book, Stateline, the violence at times seemed to be "violence for violence sake." I found the book to fall more into the thriller genre, rather than a mystery.

While I felt the story was weaker than that of Stateline, I continued to find the main character Dan Reno, an intriguing PI with a lot of potential development and backstory. The problem is we only get fleeting glimpses of what really drives Reno. It would be much more interesting to delve a little more into his motivations.

While the story falls more into the hard-boiled genre, there are times that Stanton uses language that seems like an attempt to lean more literary and it ends up standing out like a bright headlight in an empty desert.

Yet, the stories are intriguing enough to make me give the third book in the series a chance and see where Stanton takes Reno and develops him further.… (plus d'informations)