Dexter Bolzak

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Created by Michael Ayoob

Over the years it existed, the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America First P.I. Novel Contest was a wonderful spotting ground for new talent in the Shamus Game, particularly if their first name was Michael.

Joining Michaels Kronenwetter, Wiley, Koryta and Siverling was Pittsburgh scribe Michael Ayoob, whose 2009 winning contribution, In Search of Mercy, may just have been one of the best –and certainly one of the most original. And two years later, after it was published, it went ahead and won the PWA Shamus Award for Best First Novel of 2010.

Former hotshot high school goalie DEXTER BOLZJAK is a real nowhere man, an empty shell still trying to make some sense out of a life shattered by traumatic abduction and rape by a gang of sports fans after he lost a game. Definitely not your typical P.I. background.

But then, Dexter isn’t really a private eye at all. At the ripe old age of twenty-five, he’s circling the drain: he’s a sorter (onions are his specialty) at a Pittsburgh fruit and vegetable warehouse, sleeping in a cot in the curtained-off corner of a friend’s mom’s basement, and estranged from both of his divorced parents. No prospects, no girlfriend, nothing.

Not exactly setting the world on fire.

Then Lou Kashon, an aging boozehound makes Dexter an offer he can’t refuse: find out what happened to Mercy Carnahan, a reclusive film noir star who disappeared more than forty years ago. Tempted by the dying drunk’s drawer full of money, and realizing he can’t live in a basement forever, Dexter agrees, unaware that there’s more to the actress’ disappearance than originally suspected–or that in the age of online streaming video, the past is never really over. The rundown, rusted glory of a dying steeltown is the perfect backdrop for this surprisingly moving tale of broken dreams and broken lives, pain and healing, and ultimately, desperation and courage.

More, please.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Unfortunately, my wish wasn’t granted. Since In Search of Mercy, Michael Ayoob has only written one more novel, 2015’s Shadow Menagerie, which is much horror as it is crime, was released in 2015. Michael currently lives in Pittsburgh.

UNDER OATH

  • “Ayoob’s outstanding debut introduces a flawed hero who transcends all the flawed hero clichés. … Filled with vivid, violent images and characters who leap off the page into the reader’s imagination, this impressive novel builds to a startlingly ambiguous ending.”
    — Publishers Weekly
  • “… about as noir as it gets… True, absorbing grit; but it may make you ache for soap.”
    — Booklist

NOVELS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

Published

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