The Superman Project (Chico Santana) by A.E. Roman

The Bronx' PI is back! Chico Santana is hired to find Brooklyn artist Gabby Gupta and her husband, Joey Valentin, an old friend of Chico. He's drawn into the strange world of a self-improvement center that is based on religion as well as Superman comic books. In fact, there's enough of comic book references to entertain this geek. There's also a wonderful character in here, Chase, a chubby young woman who is both attractive as well as different from the way most full figured women are portrayed in fiction.
There's a murder to be investigated and there's some fights with thugs. Chico hands out some pretty good wisecracks during the course of his investigation and he shows what an interesting and complex character he is again. While the actual investigation sometimes seems to take a backseat to the colorful characters introduced the book still works perfectly as a mystery, but also offers up a more literary story.

Chinatown Angel (Chico Santana) by A.E. Roman

Chico Santana is a likable, but not perfectly sympathetic New York PI. Hired by a wannabe movie star Kirk Atlas to track down his beautiful cousin, Tiffany, he gets involved with the apparent suicide of Kirk’s maid. He finds out Kirk’s family has a lot of secrets they really don’t want to be uncovered.
While the story itself is pretty much standard fare A.E. Roman does a great job of making you care about Chico and his desire to get back with his ex and his relationships with old friends. Also, the mood of the Bronx is pretty well conveyed. There’s also the obligatory psychotic sidekick, Nicky, that might not appeal to some readers. Personally, I thought Nicky was a pretty cool addition to the Sons of Hawk.
Recommended for people who want an updated Ross McDonald.