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Out of Town for a Few
Days is a compilation
of 15 short stories featuring Private Detective Frank Johnson written by
Ed Lynskey.
The stories are short, each between 10 to 15 printed pages. The following is a brief
synopsis of each short story:
Didymus - Frank is
hired to go to Turkey and retrieve George Dupont's twin sister, Ginger.
She is an archeologist who was on an expedition in Turkey and has not
been heard from in three weeks. When Frank arrives, he teams up with
local Private Investigator Orhan. Together they track down clues that do
not seem to add up in the disappearance of Ginger Dupont.
Wood Shavings -
Retired Master Sergeant Archie McDonald disappeared one night. His wife
and three daughters hire Frank to find him. Frank receives a letter from
Sergeant McDonald informing his where he has moved to in New York City.
When Frank confronts the retired Special Forces Sergeant, he learns that
there is more more to this story than the McDonald women revealed.
Against the Season -
On Christmas Eve, Frank travels to Lake Sowego to visit a friend, Ellen
Barlowe. Upon his arrival, he learns that she died a short while ago
when her house burned down. Meeting a clerk in a liquor store, she tells
him the story of the fire. With nowhere now to stay, the clerk, who
calls herself Noel, invited Frank to sleep on the couch. Little does he
know the trouble he is getting into.
Think Pink -
Arriving in Boston at his sister's request, Frank finds her dead in her
house. Gathering evidence, he soon learns his sister was hanging out
with the wrong crowds, doing both bad and illegal things. But Frank
doesn't care, Abby will always be his baby sister and he has a murder to
solve.
This Is It, Mr. Johnson -
In July 2018, in Arapaho, New Mexico, Frank is working for Robert
Gatlin, a billionaire attorney. He is trying to dig up evidence in a
case.
Swag -
Frank is called out to help out his cousin, Vera, in West Virginia. When
he arrives at her secluded cabin, she is nowhere to be seen. He finds
her cut up in pieces in the outhouse. When he brings the Captain of the
police out, the body is gone. The Captain and Frank must now team up to
solve this mystery.
Topsy Turvy - Frank
has been hired by Mrs. Kline to find her daughter's killer. Her daughter
was an artist and her painting were selling. At the murder scene, there
were no eyewitnesses, no evidence, no leads and no weapon recovered. And
Mrs. Kline wants the killer found right away.
Mariachi Redux - In
Mexico City for a business trip, Frank almost dies when he catches a
virus. Freddie has dreamed of finding the Montezuma Crown since he was
young. He wants to sell it and make a fortune. He drags Frank along on
the search, but things aren't all that they seem.
After Big Noise in Hanoi -
Frank and Sawyer travel to Vietnam at the behest of their employer,
Gatlin, to look for an MIA that has been spotted in a prison in Hanoi.
They get some help from Mr. Hung finding Pendergast. But the prison is
ancient and crumbling. Could there still really be an MIA alive in in
this place?
Plain Vanilla Wrapper -
In Virginia, Frank meets with Reverend Pomeroy in a bar. The reverend
was trying to help Wanda Jacobs out of a jam, but she ended up with her
throat slashed. Her husband, Denny, has an air-tight alibi. Pomeroy
hires Frank to look into the murder and catch the killer.
A Treeless Land -
Recovering from chemo after having been treated for cancer, Frank
travels to Iceland to look for a killer for Gatlin.
The Hearse Driver -
Frank meets with a former military acquaintance, an MP he hasn't seen in
20 years. Ortiz, now a hearse driver, tells Frank that their former
sergeant, Aswad, has died and he is to be buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Ortiz is now Aswad's 15-year old daughter's foster dad. Ortiz wants
Frank to look into the earlier death of her mother who was killed by a
drunk driver because he wants compensation from the killer.
Coldcocked - Frank
is sent out by Gatlin to watch a husband who is suspected of dating the
wife's younger sister in Washington, DC. When he returns to Sue Chan's
house, where he has been staying, to spend the night, he finds her shot
in the head.
Death Row Casanova -
Frank's former co-worker, Wes Ferrol, has been locked away on death row.
Wes wants Frank to look into the murder of his new wife. She is the
daughter of the woman who sent him to jail from framing him in a murder
of a convenience store clerk.
Blood Red Danube -
Frank and Gatlin travel to Budapest. Frank is working, but Gatlin is
treating it like a holiday, I mean, vacation. Madeline Van Luven had
called Gatlin and informed him that her au pair has been found floating
with the fishes in the Danube.
I like the character of
Frank Johnson, as he is a tough private investigator. The 15 short
stories are interesting, but end too quickly for my taste. I often felt
like some of the stories were hurried, and I must have missed something
because I didn't see how Frank came to some of the conclusions that he
did. I found myself getting lost in some of the stories. Why? I'm not
sure, but one thing that really bothered me was the timeline. Since
these are short stories, they seem to take place in a wide spectrum of
time in Frank's life. Sometimes he is a private dick, sometimes he is
working for Gatlin, one story is way in the future (2018), in another he
is recovering from cancer. I found this very distracting as I never knew
where each story played in Frank's life. Overall, this is a good buy for
a dollar, as a lot of the stories quite good. But I would prefer to see
Frank in one long story where I can see more plot development.
I rated this book a 7 out of
10. |
