Hallmarks Of The Job / Aloha Boys: A P.I. Tales Double Feature (Stanley Melvin / Morriss Ronald Boyett) by Frank Zafiro / Michael Bracken

 

I saw love this idea of combining two PI novellas in one book. I loved the first one and the second one turned out to be pretty awesome as well.

In Frank Zafiro's Hallmarks of the Job,we meet PI Stanley Melvin. He's no superheroic or tough Spenser. But when he gets involved in a routine case his neigbor points out the case is full of hardboiled detective novel tropes. He will need to toughen up a bit! It is a pretty quirky and fun story. I really could identify with Stanley and the plot was really inventive.

In Michael Bracken's Aloha Boys, we read about Private investigator Morris Ronald “Moe Ron” Boyette who lives above a tattoo place. A homeless woman hires him to find her missing half-brother. He gets involved with some dirty secrets of a University. Bracken's prose is effective as always. The plot is neatly tied up and there is not an unnecessary word. Bracken's huge experience in short stories pays off in this longer format.