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Private eye Sean Sean has no middle initial and is very short. We hear those facts more than once in THE CASE OF THE GREEDY LAWYERS. Sean also has an interesting sense of humor; his description of an appearance he made at a party thrown by Ephraim Saint Martin, a prominent Minneapolis lawyer, is laugh-outloud funny. It goes a long way toward explaining why Magda Bryce's assertion that she was referred to Sean by that law firm piques Sean's interest. The fact that Magda Bryce is married to one of the partners also intrigues Sean. That interest is reinforced when he is called to the morgue to view the very dead, possible tortured, body of Ms Bryce. And again when some local thugs assault him in his own home. Polly, a woman with a connection to the Bryce household, calls Sean for help. Before he can render that assistance, Polly is dead. Now Sean won't be pried off the case with a crowbar. There is more to Sean's life than being a PI. His business association with masseuse Catherine Mckerney is progressing nicely into a more personal relationship. Problems do arise, as one might expect, but nothing that two mature adults can't work out, given a little time. This is the first in the Sean Sean series; Brookins is also the author of the Tanner/Whitney sailing mysteries. Brookins can plot as well as the next man, and his flair for description leaves little to be desired. If the reader has more than a minimal knowledge of the mystery genre and/or publishing field, there are lots of in-jokes in THE CASE OF THE GREEDY LAWYERS. Not getting the jokes won't appreciably change one's grasp of the story. This is, in my opinion, a gentle poke at some of the 'rules' of PI fiction -- the mean streets just aren't all that mean in Sean Sean's Minneapolis. What I found difficult to handle was Sean Sean. I never got a real solid feel for the man's moral structure. While the reasons for Sean getting involved in the Bryce case are stately clearly enough, I didn't find them particularly compelling, given the character's character. I find his sartorial statements to be very odd -- Red Keds do not go with everything, but (and it wouldn't be the first time) perhaps I just don't get the joke. It took me a long time (almost two weeks) to read THE CASE OF THE GREEDY LAWYERS; there just wasn't enough there to make me eager to get back to it. If you like the self-deprecating humor that makes Tim Cockey or Jeff Cohen so much fun to read, perhaps you will enjoy THE CASE OF THE GREEDY LAWYERS more than I did. It's a good story, good setting and believable (mostly) characters. Personally, I prefer the sailing stories.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, February 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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