Stuart M. Kaminsky’s Lew Fonesca mysteries are comfort reading for me, meant for lazy rainy days or for weekends when I can read late into the evening. The puzzles are fair, and the mysteries are intriguing enough, but it’s the people and the problems Lou faces that really capture my attention and emotions.
A few years ago, Lew Fonesca lost his wife in a tragic hit and run car accident in Chicago. Lost, he got in his car and drove until he ended up in Sarasota, Florida where he works as a process server and some time off-the-books private investigator. Usually the cases he ends up with are too small for big-name detectives and annoyances for the local police. There’s not much money in them, but Fonesca doesn’t need much money. Better than that, having a low price tag doesn’t mean the mystery is second-rate.
Another one of the great features of the series is that devoted readers get to see Fonesca grow and change as he grapples with emotionally-charged issues that threaten to shatter him completely or draw him out of his shell. His depression over his wife’s death still lingers and I don’t think it will ever completely go away. His illness lends him a childlike innocence that is endearing and makes readers feel protective.
In this latest case, as chronicled in Bright Futures, Fonesca gets hired by a couple of high school students to clear a friend of theirs who is accused of murdering Phillip Horvecki, a local politician who is against the way the local high school offers curriculum for bright students. The case pretty much looks open and shut, but the students are insistent and Fonesca feels he has no choice. He thinks he’s just going to look around a little, assure them that their friend really did do the murder, then give them their money back. I was intrigued by the case but only because I was waiting to see what the author would do with it. I knew from experience that all was not what it seemed.
Article comments
1 - Atlanta Private Investigator
I love Lew Fenesca books. Great review - thank you for sharing.