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.

This Wicked World (Jimmy Boone) by Richard Lange

In this tale of L.A. noir we are introduced to a very cool protagonist, ex-con and ex-Marine Jimmy Boone now living life as a bartender. Asked by the bar's bouncer to help him out in investigating the death of a young migrant worker he gets involved with a young wannabe-gangstah, a wild young girl and some heavier baddies.
He also finds time to get romantic with an ex-cop and take care of a toothless pitbull.
Richard does a great job of bringing all characters to life, managing to make also the bad guys look like real, at times even good, people.
There's a good amount of action crime but there's also a very literary quality to this story. The comparisons made to George Pelecanos by the media aren't that far off. Good stuff!