Loose Coins: A Mystery - Hardcover

Hensley, Joe L.; Townsend, Guy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312192975 ISBN 13: 9780312192976

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 1998

Synopsis

Ex-attorney-turned-private detective and coin-shop clerk Al Sears--a divorced, recovering alcoholic--finds his past coming back to haunt him when he becomes the target of an unknown killer out to avenge the past.

About this title

Review:

Joe L. Hensley, a former circuit court judge and lawyer, writes his series of mysteries about a detective with a similar background to his own (Robak's Witch, Robak's Fire) with a perfect ear for the nuances of small-time criminality. Now he and Indiana prosecutor Guy M. Townsend have caught that same voice in their first joint effort.

"I might have heard a little," a seedy little coin hustler is telling private eye Al Sears about rumors of a contract on Al's life. "I can't remember where it came from. I just heard it said around, after the story in the papers, that maybe that night at the game might not be the last time someone would try to get you. I guess it's for something bad you did. Bar talk and coin talk is that someone wants you in the grave."

Al, a former hotshot lawyer laid low by booze, is working part-time in the coin shop where he spent much of his former money. When a would-be robber of a poker game turns out to be an unsuccessful assassin, Al is forced to search through the pockets of his past for clues to who might want him dead. A glamorous ex-wife is a good suspect, likewise a couple of supposed pals. Even in the current tidal wave of alcoholic detectives, Sears has enough going for him to make a return visit worth waiting for. --Dick Adler

About the Author:

Guy M. Townsend is the deputy prosecutor in Ripley County, Indiana.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0312192975
• ISBN 13: 9780312192976
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224