LITTLE EASTER (1993)
2nd Dylan Klein book
Dylan Klein, having come into some money during his last case, has given up his distinguished career as an insurance investigator to pursue his dream as a writer. But like stray light near a black hole, Klein is sucked into the vacuum of a deadly love triangle by the appearance of a mysterious woman and her subsequent execution.
Klein, alarmed that his best friend - ex-New York City detective Johnny MacClough - might be involved, temporarily turns in his pen. With the questionable assistance of an alcoholic newspaper woman and a notorious criminal lawyer, Dylan Klein plunges headlong into the quicksand of organized crime and the powerful men behind it.
Klein faces enormous problems in his quest, not the least of which is Johnny MacClough's stubborn refusal to cooperate. If anything, the ex-detective appears bound and determined to sabotage the efforts being made on his behalf. Further complicating Klein's travails is the potential fallout from a tragic love affair. Left unresolved and dormant for over two decades, it threatens to explode like some forgotten time bomb left ticking in the attic. Can Klein defuse the situation or will it blow up in his face?
Little Easter is a novel about the falls we take and the ways in which we recover…if we recover at all. Join Dylan Klein's forays into the clandestine worlds of the Mafia, New York's Diamond Exchange, and behind the police department's blue wall of silence. Meet the fallen and the tall.
REVIEWS
Patient readers are rewarded with a somber and gripping crime story: Klein tracks down the dead woman's identity and her relationship with the tight-lipped MacClough; he unearths a few more stiffs, and he gets sordid and horizontal with a boozed-up woman journalist whose career is on its way down despite her fancy credentials. The graphic conclusion, as mob thugs surface with guns blazing, features the brief, memorable appearance of a gardening implement. A grim start and a grim finish mark this uneven but often satisfying story. - Publishers Weekly
WHERE TO BUY
Amazon (used)