I was already pretty impressed by the first novel but this one surpasses that one.
A more confident and structured writer now, Russell gives us everything I like in the genre. The pacing is better this time, the story less complicated and maybe because of that more dramatic and involving.
Starting off with a missing persons case McNee shows himself a worthy successor of Lew Archer, dealing with dirty family secrets, not being able to help himself but get involved in some personal dramas.
While actively acknowledging the clichés of the genre and telling us that's not how a real PI's life works he also manages to show us the traditional PI is not dead yet when written in the right way.
McNee is a man looking for justice, not just out to nab the bad guys. We're shown that in the end of the novel where the shades between black and white blur like in the best examples of the hardboiled genre.
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