Created by Les Roberts
You’re soaking in it.
It’s the stomping ground for tough, likable, Kolbasa-loving blue collar private eye MILAN JACOVICH (pronounced MY-lan YOCK-ovich) an ordinary joe kinda guy, in this solid series. He’s an ex-football player, well-educated, and fiercely proud of his Slovenian heritage, his working class roots and—make no mistake—his hometown. In fact, Jacovich does for Cleveland what Spenser does for Boston—he goes, as one of the book’s titles puts it, “Full Cleveland.”
But it’s still Cleveland.
In fact, Roberts’ emphasis on Milan being just an average joe sometimes almost backfires–he ends up being almost too average.
Fortunately, Roberts himself is an above-average writer, and the series, in its solid, dependable way moved from strength to strength with each new novel. His efforts to deal with being a working class divorced father, as well as his efforts to get back into the dating scene, humanize him in a way few P.I. series dare. They’re well-written and carefully plotted, and always well-stocked with believable characters. And, as a specialist in industrial security, they’re also often quite challenging, presenting us with some tasty moral and ethical dilemmas. Highly recommended.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Les Roberts was born and bred in Chicago, but currently lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He moved there from Hollywood where, among other things, he produced The Hollywood Squares and wrote for The Andy Griffith Show and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He’s a past president of the Private Eye Writers of America, where his first book, about private eye/novelist/actor Saxon, was the very first winner of the St. Martin’s Press/PWA Best First P.I. Novel Contest. In 2003 he received the Sherwood Anderson Literary Award. A native of Chicago, he now lives in northeast Ohio.
NOVELS
- Pepper Pike (1988) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
- Full Cleveland (1989) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
- Deep Shaker (1991) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
- The Cleveland Connection (1993) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Lake Effect (1994) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Duke Of Cleveland (1995) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Collision Bend (1996) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Cleveland Local (1997) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- A Shoot in Cleveland (1998) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Best Kept Secret (1999) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Indian Sign (2000) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Dutch (2001) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Irish Sports Pages (2002) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- King of the Holly Hop (2008) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
- The Cleveland Creep (2011) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
- Whiskey Island (2012) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
- Win, Place or Die (2013; written with Dan S. Kennedy) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
- The Ashtabula Hat Trick (2015) |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
SHORT STORIES
- “The Gathering of the Klan” (2000, The Shamus Game)
- “Jazz Canary” (2004, Murder… and All That Jazz)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Ohio Players: How Many More?
Private Eyes of the Buckeye State