This is my first book by this very talented writer. I can see why he he won many awards and had a successful career.

Now I can stop being nice. This series stars a likable, pathetic, depressed, loner, loser of a man. After leaving the dump called Chicago he landed in Sarasota FL. He feels the town is just bad enough to match his slide to nothingness. He spends what change he finds on the sidewalk on a cheap shrink. She is nice and would be worth the price if she also slept with him. He spends his off hours riding a bicycle (cars cost money) and brooding about his dead wife. Wow!

Working as a friendly "process server" he finds himself in danger but refuses take proper precautions. The thought of a gun makes his girl parts hurt. He will rely on strong women and tough men to do what a Chicago boy can't do for himself. That's just the first half of the book. He may find his way and a spine but I can't be bothered to finish.

In my quest to find another good thriller writer I gave this author a try. He's not a thriller writer. He writes slow comfortable mysteries. His writing style is very good but his stories are portraits of mediocrity. Not what I'm looking for. ( )

A Lew Fonesca novel. Typically quirky Kaminsky characters with a decent plot and clever dialogue. Kaminsky grows on you with each additional book, whether it's the dimunutive Lew Fonesca/Toby Peters protagonists or the one legged Russian inspector Rostnikov (?) ( )

A Lew Fonesca novel. Typically quirky Kaminsky characters with a decent plot and clever dialogue. Kaminsky grows on you with each additional book, whether it's the dimunutive Lew Fonesca/Toby Peters protagonists or the one legged Russian inspector Rostnikov (?) ( )

Vengeance, by Stuart Kaminsky, is the first Lew Fonesca Mystery. Kaminsky has created another very interesting and tormented lead character surrounded by many other strange and intriguing supporting characters. Lew, a process server who is good at finding people, is hired by a woman to find her teenage daughter. Fonesca finds her (Adele) and rescues her from an abusive father and life of prostitution. ( )