Favorite Sons of 2010

As I do every year I want to share with you my favorite PI-stuff of the year.

BEST PI NOVEL: Big Bang by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
BEST DEBUT: Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva
BEST NEW PI: Jimmy Boone (in This Wicked World) by Richard Lange
BEST ACTION SCENES: The Taking of Libbie, SD by David Housewright

Honorable mentions go to Lori Armstrong for her new series featuring Mercy Gunderson that promises to be as good as the Julie Collins books and Nick Quantrill for the most exciting non-US novel of the year.

Loose Ends Kill (Jim West) by Bob Doerr

Jim West (an ex-military investigator) investigates the murder of a friend's wife to get him out of jail. He soon discovers his friend's wife had a very active sex life, one that didn't always include her husband. Can the killer be found among her many lovers?
Jim is a professional investigator and a pretty tough guy. He just didn't come to live for me, however. The writing lacked a certain style or appeal, it lacked that special signature writers like Robert B. Parker, James Lee Burke or John Sanford have to make it stand out from the competition. The mystery didn't surprise me mucheither. All in all, not one of the better books in the genre to come out this year I'm afraid.