After leaving the police department of Amber City under a cloud of suspicion (being tried for the murder of one's wife will do that), former detective Jack Tarelli ekes out a living as a small-time private investigator. Word-of-mouth business, keep his head low, stay off the radar, that's Jack's life. So it was a great surprise to be summoned to the home of Rutherford Harland, the richest man in the city, and an even greater surprise to be hired to investigate the recent murder of Harland's son and heir, Nathan. Throw in Yvonne, the still-gorgeous former debutante daughter of the billionaire, a humanoid robot butler, the mob, the rain, and the weeks-long night of Jannix, and you've got all the ingredients for an SF noir whodunnit: a cross between Blade Runner and The Maltese Falcon, or so the publicity for this self-published novel says.

And, you know, it's not a bad story. Jack's a great character with a dry sarcastic wit, and the plot itself is suspenseful -- just enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. Still, I have to give it just two stars for "It was okay" because, well, for example, the author used "alter" when the correct word was "altar"; "who's" when the correct usage was "whose"; and ellipses... all... over... the... freaking... place. Seriously. If I saw the phrase "Jack the Knife..." once, I saw it a hundred times.

Still, I give C.B. McCullough credit: he wrote and published an almost-good book. I'd love to see what could have been made of it with a decent editor and some re-writes.

(I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads program in exchange for a review.) ( )