Gold Coast Blues (Jules Landau) by Mark Krulewitch

Jules Landau returns, tougher than ever. We've seen him get a bit more hardboiled with every book and I like the fact he seems to have gained a bit more attitude.
Hired by a shady character to track down his missing girlfriend he gets involved with counterfeit expensive wine.
The fact wine is used as one of the reasons wrongdoings are being done is original. I am used to seeing either drugs or maybe art for that.
I liked the character of Amy, a psychic with a secret who has a love-hate thing going with Jules which made for some nice tension and fun dialogue.
There's some nice twist and turns to spice up the story, but a lot of it felt slow-moving. I'd say the novel could lose a page or 20.
Fairly standard, but not bad stuff. I will be along for the 4th one.

Windy City Blues (Jules Landau) by Mark Krulewitch

I pretty much enjoyed the first one in this series so I was eager enough to read this one.
When a parking cop is killed Jules Landau is hired to find out who did it. Jules is still pretty new at this game, but he's got a good mentor who is unfortunately very old so might not be around for long.
His investigation takes him into Chicago corruption and has him falling for a beautiful Georgian baker while he is forced to take on the Georgian Mob as well.
It's all pretty standard modern day PI stuff but written with heart and I fell in love with the Georgian baker a bit. I have to admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the first novel which had that special first novel energy this one lacks.
Still, if you want a solid PI series that ticks all the necessary boxes of the genre you will like this one.

Maxwell Street Blues (Jules Landau) by Mark Krulewitch

Jules Landau is a college man with a family that has been doing things on the shady side who now makes a living as a PI. In his first story his father hires him to find out who killed the family's best friend.
Among the characters he meets during his investigation are crooked cops and a kinky tattoo artist.
I really liked the laidback and relatable vibe of Jules' voice, like a less witty Elvis Cole. The mystery has a nice amount of twists and turns and the story is very decidedly set in modern day Chicago.
I think this books was originally selfpublished before it was picked up by Random House's Alibi imprint. Although I really liked the book I'm a bit surprised by that fact because it really isn't that much more than a standard PI book and I didn't think the bigger publishers still liked that. Well, if they do, I guess that is pretty good news.