The setting is interesting, as it takes place in 1970's Atlantic City. I thought this was a good start to a series, and perfect for fans of detective stories. This was a bit distracting until I told myself to allow the story to exist "whenever." Once that was done, I was able to relax and enjoy this rather timeless narrative. In my opinion Lennon's tone, as well as the story's dialogues, may be more indicative of an earlier decade than the 70’s. Tom Lennon makes me believe he’s telling the story. The narration is carried out consistently well. My only prickly note is that sometimes the feel of time is closer to the 1940’s than the 70’s, which is detectable in both in the dialogue and the narration. The real enjoyment is in details I dare not share lest I spoil your fun. The story definitely kept me guessing as the pendulum swung from hilarity to horror to hope. The plot is enriched with a cast of very suspicious antagonists, all of whom have motive to kill. As Dickens’s enemies gloat over his misfortune, he steadily mounts clues and garners support from his extremely limited resources.
Following Detective Damien Dickens through boardwalk knockouts rubbish burials (his own) pawnshop prowls and the ire of his long time enemies made this listen fun adventure and conjured more than a little worry over the doomed detective. This crew is all kerchiefs and pearls and murder.
This takes us back to the New Jersey and New York of the 70’s, which was a time of bell bottoms, disco music, pay phones, and platform shoes-but not for the conservative heirs of a tobacco conglomerate. This was an enjoyable first book, paving the way for future adventures, ably narrated by Tom Lennon, although his female voices were less convincing. My one issue with the book was the excessive description of what everyone was wearing whenever they entered the story, which became irritating after a while. Celine's sister and brother-in-law are owners of a huge tobacco concern and there is much family conniving and interaction, which gives an interesting twist to the plot. The clues, however, suggest that Damien Dickens himself, was responsible for her murder and he is duly arrested. He feels responsible for her death and blames himself for not being able to protect her. Celine's body was found under the Altlantic City Boardwalk (pier?), soon after she came to Dick for help. I enjoyed getting to know 'Dick' and found him to be an endearing character, as he solved the mystery of the death of his former client, Celine Sutherland. This was the first book in a series of murder mysteries featuring Damian Dickens and his lawyer Gus.
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