J.J Donovan
Created by Micheal I. Leahy
J.J. DONOVAN is an unlicensed,
Manhattan-based "private consultant" who takes on cases
from clients who want to avoid undue legal interference. Despite
his extra-legal status, Donovon has a strong sense of justice
and will go out of his way to help the underdog.
When we first meet him in Broken Machines, the first novel in an inevitable series, Donovan is helping a social worker acquaitance protect a ten-year old boy whose prostitute mother was murdered. At the same time, Donavon gets hired by the chairman of a ramshackle manufacturing company who is convinced that his partner is defrauding him. Of course, Donovon eventually finds a connection between the two cases.
I found this novel to be OK, but nothing special. The plot and setting are appropriately hard-boiled, but Donovan himself was to be a bit too square-jawed and forthright to be believed, like Captain Marvel slumming in the worst parts of Brooklyn. Frankly, I found him a bit bland and self-satisfied. I realize that the tortured angsty PI is a bit of a cliche, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to give Donovan a few rough edges to distinguish him from a million other PI characters out there.
Another problem I had with the book was the "quirky" supporting characters: His partner is Boris, a 300-pound Russian economist who never hardly ever his apartment. Nevertheless , the guy is such a genius he can come to great deductive leaps simply by listening to the facts of the case. Sound familiar? The character is the closest to a blatant rip-off you can get without the executors of the Rex Stout estate coming after you with a band of lawyers.
The rest of the supporting cast are a similarly contrived band of "lovable" eccentrics. It was all so adorably cutesy, I nearly puked.
Yet, despite all that, the author somehow does manage to come up with a gritty, twisty story underneath all that artifice. If you can get past the cute factor, you might concievably enjoy it.
The author, Michael I. Leahey, is the Director of the Office of Clinical Trials at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital. He lives in Westchester with his wife and two children. Broken Machines has since been followed by The Pale Green Horse in 2002.
NOVELS
Respectfully submitted by Bryan English.
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