The Fitzgerald Ruse

A Sam Blackman Mystery

By: Mark de Castrique

Narrated by: William Dufris

Former chief warrant officer and amputee Sam Blackman and his partner, Nakayla Robertson, are opening a detective agency. They have high hopes that the thriving Mountain Region will provide a steady stream of cases.

Their first client, a quirky elderly woman in a retirement community, makes a strange request: she wants Sam to right a wrong she committed over 70 years ago. Her victim? F. Scott Fitzgerald. Her crime? Stealing a manuscript when Fitzgerald resided in the stately Grove Park Inn. Sam's task seems simple enough: retrieve the woman's lockbox and deliver the manuscript to Fitzgerald's heirs.

©2009 Mark de Castrique (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Winning....Readers will hope to see a lot more of the book's amiable characters, in particular, Sam and Nakayla, whose comfortable banter lends the story much of its charm." ( Publishers Weekly)

Disappointing

I wanted to like this book, but the male protagonist of the series came across as both unintelligent and arrogant. I found his character in the first book interesting, and the plots of both books are creative, but his condescension to his partner in the second book of the series really turned me off. I might try one more book in the series, but the protagonist needs an attitude adjustment in the next one or I'll be done with this author.