Collision Bend

Since Les Roberts first introduced him in Pepper Pike, the Cleveland private eye Milan Jacovich and his creator have gone on to win the hearts of readers and reviewers alike with Roberts's affectionate portrayal of his rough-around-the-edges midwestern home.
The brutal death of Virginia Carville, one of Cleveland's up-and-coming television reporters, shocks the city, and even ex-cop Milan is not immune. He had met the young woman on several occasions with his former lover, Mary Soderberg, the television station's top sales executive. Mary broke Milan's heart when she left, but now she's back to ask a favor. The police have as their chief suspect Steve Cirini, the station's sales manager and the man Mary left Milan for. Milan reluctantly agrees to take the job, and soon is up to his neck in big trouble.

When someone strangles promising local TV newscaster Virginia Carville, Cleveland PI Milan Jacovich gets a call he wants to refuse, but can't. His former lover, Mary Soderberg, a sales executive at the TV station, asks Milan to help the man she dumped him for, Steve Cirini, now the top suspect because he was among Carville's many sex partners. Milan's current flame, Nicole Archer, resents Mary's involvement, but he takes the case (his seventh, following The Duke of Cleveland). On Carville's computer disk, Milan discovers notes that might, if deciphered, unmask the murderer. A powerful station manager, a veteran anchorwoman and the pompous Cirini all have possible motives. Something also seems fishy about the bestselling romance writer who lived next door to Carville. The payoff punch, although nicely concealed, may remind some readers of Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, but that's a minor letdown in this solid, keep-you-guessing mystery. Former television producer Roberts writes knowingly of the medium; newscaster sleeping with sales manager makes a timely metaphor for the ethics of broadcast journalism. Roberts affectionately weaves in the history and rich ethnic mix of Milan Jacovich's Cleveland turf.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Slavs, as Milan Jacovich observes, aren't prone to forgive and forget. So it's not easy for Milan to say yes when his former lover, Channel 12 sales exec Mary Soderberg, wants to hire Milan Security on behalf of Steve Cirini, the smarmy charmer who stole her away from Milan. The Cleveland cops like Steve for the strangling of rising Channel 12 star Virginia Carville. Since the other suspects, though they offer strikingly different opinions of Ginger--was she a careerist saint, a hard-nosed pro, a hot- bodied bedmate, or an amoral user?--share a conspicuous lack of motive, it looks like a tough case--unless, of course, Milan minds failing and watching Steve twist slowly in the wind. But a cryptic series of notes on a diskette Mary filches from Ginger's desk leads Milan to an explosive story Ginger was working on, a story that casts many of the suspects in a nasty new light. Working through his own romantic problems--a particularly masterly scene takes Milan and his current partner from tender, spirited lovemaking to breakup--Milan follows the trail of Ginger's story to a satisfyingly surprising denouement. The only flaw in Milan's seventh case (The Duke of Cleveland, 1995, etc.): a vital clue cribbed from one of the best-known contemporary mysteries. Otherwise, all is low-key perfection. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

If John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee lives on, it's in Les Roberts' Milan Jacovich. Like the legendary McGee, Jacovich is a man of principle, a quixotic philosopher, and a gentle giant who's wise, caring, and as confused about life as the rest of us. Milan has moved his office to Cleveland's Collision Bend area on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. His old flame, Mary Soderberg (for whom Milan still carries a torch), is distraught when her lover and colleague is accused of murdering a popular Cleveland television reporter. Even though Mary hasn't spoken to Milan in three years, she turns to him for help. What ensues forces the implacable Milan to face some ugly truths about the human condition. Roberts, who writes some of today's best testosterone-laced PI stories, offers a pithy plot, world-weary but witty dialogue, and an appealing portrait of the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of often-maligned Cleveland. A good choice for all mystery collections. Emily Melton