Favorite Sons of 2013

Every year I tell you all what my favorite PI reads of the year were...
Well, here are my favorites again...

BEST PI NOVEL: Point Doom (JD Fiorella) by Dan Fante
BEST DEBUT: The Hard Bounce (Boo Malone) by Todd Robinson
BEST NEW PI: Mark Paris /The Professor (Subtraction) by Andrew Peters
BEST ACTION SCENES: One More Body (Moses McGuire) by Josh Stallings

Runners-up in various categories were:
Dirty Work (Gulliver Dowd) by Reed Farrel Coleman
Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me (Vic Valentine) by Will Viharo
A Small Sacrifice (Nick Forte) by Dana King

And an award should for WRITER WHO GETS BETTER EVERY YEAR should go to Steve Ulfelder for Shotgun Lullaby (Conway Sax).
And another one for WRITER WHO WORKS THE HARDEST should go to Nathan Gottlieb of the Frank Boff novels.

I also want to thank Keith Dixon and Sean Dexter for helping me bring out my own stuff.

Doom Point (JD Fiorella) by Dan Fante

JD Fiorella used to be salesman, a cop and a PI until a shoot-out had him crawl too far into the bottle. Now he lives in Malibu, attending AA meetings, trying to write and making a living selling cars. When a friends gets brutally murdered he set outs for revenge.
The first 80 pages or so you might think you're reading a literary novel. Then the hunter within the protagonist really awakens and you get a hardboiled tale of revenge that would make Mike Hammer blush. Rarely have I seen a protagonist so relentless and merciless. At times I must admit I was a bit taken aback by his ruthless behaviour and willingness to torture. Here's a guy who doesn't need a psycho sidekick. He IS the psycho. Aside from those qualities he picks up hookers, can be a nasty, hot-tempered kind of guy, is a bit sexist... Well, you get the picture. Spenser he's not.
Still, I was fascinated by seeing him in action and to be fair, the main villain is way worse. The prose is dark, angry and to the point. I understand there will be a second JD Fiorella novel, I'm looking forward to that one. The ending to this one had me a bit worried about his return, but thinking about Dan Fortune put my mind at ease.
My favorite read of the year so far.