Genre: Detective/Satire
Description:
“Teddy Lint is the kindest private investigator on the planet,
committed to seeing the best in everyone he meets. The detective agency he runs
out of a Los Angeles strip mall with his brother Ralph has seen a strange case
or two before, but never anything like this.
A man claiming to work for the CIA hires the Lints to find a shipping
container of radioactive Agent Orange that vanished over fifty years ago. He
insists someone is planning on using an army of drones to drench L.A. with the
deadly chemicals before the week is out.
The Lint Brothers enter a maze of bizarre suspects, from nefarious ad
executives, to anarchistic Boy Scouts, to a toga-clad militia fighting for
exclusive rule by women. The propaganda-obsessed society that seems to be
running the world is probably worth looking into as well.
The power of empathy collides with the dangers of disinformation as
Teddy fights to save the people he loves. Our beloved detective doesn't give up
easily, but any Angelenos with an aversion to death by herbicide might want to
dust off that umbrella, just in case . . .”
Author:
“Patrick Canning is the author of For Your Benefit (2024), Cryptonalia
(2021), Hawthorn Woods (2020), The Colonel and the Bee (2018),
and Cryptofauna (2018).
His work often blends genres, combining elements of humor, adventure,
fantasy, and mystery into stories with imaginative settings, quirky characters,
and typos.
Patrick lives in Chicago with his Australian Shepherd, Hank. When he
isn’t writing, he enjoys walks on the lakefront, being excited/worrying about
AI, and eating his bodyweight in potatoes.”
Appraisal:
This was an interesting read. It was described to me as a “satirical
detective novel” and I wasn’t sure how satire was going to work with a mystery
or detective story. I found the characters in this to be interesting, amusing
(the satirical qualities were at least part of that), and, as you’d want with a
detective novel, the story kept me guessing, having little clue what direction
things were going. There were times when it felt like my ability to suspend
disbelief was being stretched to its limit, but I think the strange detectives
allowed me to keep believing and continue reading since I really wanted to know
where the story was going to end up. All in all it made for a fun and very
unique read.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Some adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Review is based on an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the
final product in this area.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words
