Book Review: For the Death of Me

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

For the Death of Me     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Quintin Jardine
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Hard Boiled
Series: Oz Blackstone # 9
Headline, $24.95 trade paperback, 308 pages

Summertime in Monaco, and international film star Oz Blackstone has been sweet-talked by a struggling author into optioning his debut novel. It’s not until he meets Benedict Luker that he realizes he may well have been had. For Benny Luker is actually Mike Dylan, bent copper and supposed dead man. Of course, Oz has known for a while that Dylan isn’t really dead, but his two luncheon companions, his wife Susie and his ex-wife Primavera, had no idea.

But the trouble really begins when his brother-in-law Harvey January, a Queen’s Counsel who’s about to be elevated to the Bench, asks for his help. It seems that Harvey’s ex-wife Madeleine has some incriminating photos of her one-time husband, and Harvey would like them back before she decides to sell them to a tabloid. Oz finds himself winging his way to Singapore to deal with Maddy January. Once there, he learns that Maddy has got herself in a whole heap of trouble with the Chinese Triads. Oz risks life and limb to extract her from that trouble. If he doesn’t come back alive, his wife will kill him.

Once again, Quintin Jardine has pulled off a literary coup. What can you say about a man who gleefully plugs the latest novel of one series in the middle of the latest novel of his other series? Oz gets better (or perhaps worse) with each book. The action is cranked to the max, and so is the dark humour. The Oz Blackstone novels are amongst the funniest crime fiction out there, if you read them right. The explosive climax, though, will rock long-time readers right down to their toes.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM