Gumshoe is by a large margin the best and most entertaining mystery I've read in at least the past couple of years.Rob Leininger captures the voice and heart of the classic PI mystery and manages to make it completely original at the same time. No small feat. And Mortimer Angel is my new favorite Private Eye. -- John Lescroart At the start of this complex, seductive thriller from Leininger (Killing Suki Flood), Mort Angel has quit a dead-end job as an IRS agent and is about to embark on a new career as a PI trainee in Reno, Nev. Meanwhile, Mort's ex-wife has been heating the sheets with Reno's mayor, but the mayor has mysteriously disappeared along with the city's DA, and Angel's first assignment is to hunt down the two missing politicians. What looks like a straightforward hard-boiled tale takes one surprising turn after another, propelled by Mort's snappy narrative voice and wry observations. While Mort's astonishing success in the romance department is more than slightly far-fetched, Leininger keeps the action rolling fast enough to keep any willing reader turning the pages. Eventually, Mort unravels a family history that would make Ross Macdonald proud. There's no violence and very little gore for most of the novel, but after a long and complicated buildup, the climax arrives with screaming intensity. -- Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW For the first third of this novel, readers are likely to wonder, along with hero Mort Angel, just what they're getting into. Mort is a former IRS agent seeking to reinvent himself as a PI. He and his author push all the buttons. He's solitary, he drinks too much, he banters with hookers. Is this a parody? An homage? A clumsy attempt to have it both ways? Hard to tell, even when Leininger has Mort, just like Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep, come home to find a gorgeous naked woman in his bed. Then Mort is asked to solve a couple of grisly murders; he pairs with a female PI, who is also a judo champ, and the mood darkens beautifully. She teaches him how to be a real detective, not the storybook version, by making him sit in a library and read dull documents until his eyes burn. They're drawn into a story of madness, incest, and revenge that ends in a stunning set piece that roars for nearly 40 pages. A fine, thrilling read. -- Booklist Five-Star Review: "All Mortimer Angel wants to do is shed the skin of his previous incarnation as a disaffected IRS field agent, and begin his exciting new life as a Private Investigator. Full of fanciful ideas and preconceived notions of what being a P.I. means, Mort soon finds himself in the thick of an ongoing mystery involving the missing mayor and the D.A. of Reno, NV. As the dead start cropping up all around him, and a naked blonde shows up out of nowhere, his new life is turning out to be almost too much for this gumshoe to handle! Will Mort be able to use his newly acquired detective skills to solve this case? Or will Mort's P.I. days be over before they truly begin? Rob Leininger has spun an electrifying suspense novel, full of twists and turns! Mortimer Angel is the shining gem in this tale. His rapier wit and tongue-in-cheek manner are an ongoing source of amusement. Likeable characters, crisp dialogue, and an intriguing storyline add up to a flawless execution of this hardboiled thriller. Mr. Leininger does a masterful job of intensifying that "pins and needles" feeling that will have one on the edge of their seat right up until the very end! Gumshoe is a standout novel with a finale that will leave the reader stunned and eagerly awaiting the next effort from the talented Mr. Leininger." InD'tale Magazine