Howard Shrier’s private eye, Jonah Geller, is as hard-boiled as they come. This latest book in a series about a Canadian secular Jew, trained in the Israeli army, proves that not even the need to recuperate from a serious concussion can keep a tough guy at home in Toronto.
Geller is hired to search for a missing intern at a famous Boston hospital. Since David Fine has always been a dutiful son about contacting them regularly, his parents believe that something terrible must have happened to him. Even though Geller is still in recovery mode, he finds himself compelled to devote his detective agency’s skills to take on the case. David Fine’s parents deserve to have an answer, though Geller doubts it will be a positive outcome. He also knows he will not be welcomed by the local police and that his private investigator license carries no weight in the States.
Boston turns out to be populated with stereotypes that prove not to be so cliché after all: Geller’s assistant, Jenn Raudsepp, is a gorgeous, blond computer whiz, who everyone assumes is having a relationship with him; a missing East Indian storekeeper, who appears to be linked to the disappearance of David Fine; and added to the mix are a rabbi and his beautiful unmarried daughter, a transplant surgeon with a Napoleonic complex and a smooth politician who provides more questions than answers. Throw in a few Irish thugs, Italian mobsters, a “street-hustler” and clueless cops and you’ve got a city of people with their own agendas.
Naturally, everything starts to go wrong in the investigation. When Jenn is kidnapped, things become personal for Geller and the ensuing gunfights and property damage somehow fail to attract police action until too late.
The book could have been titled Geller’s Law, as Jonah is the moral compass of the story making life and death decisions. And even he finds it difficult to live with the choices he is forced to make. Geller blames his forays across the border where the guns are easier to obtain and stakes are higher for the violence that results. “I am not a violent man. I keep telling myself that.” he declares. But “Guilt attaches to Jews like barnacles…” and not even Talmudic reasoning is able to provide him with peace of mind.
If you like your shoot ’em up action mixed with clever dialogue and thought provoking conundrums, then Boston Cream is just the ticket. — Elizabeth Read, Women’s Post
