Jump-Tim Maleeny

Jump
Tim Maleeny
Poisoned Pen, Jun 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9781590585740

After going out on an early retirement former San Francisco homicide detective widower Sam McGowan looks forward to rest and relaxation. When his odious landlord Ed Lowry takes a swan dive from a twentieth story window at the Golden Towers Apartment, Sam plans to remain out of it. The brass pressure Sam’s former partner Danny Rodriguez to declare it officially a suicide, but he has doubts.

Danny asks Sam on his first day of retirement to conduct some informal inquiries with his twentieth floor neighbors. Reluctantly Sam does and learns everyone seemed to want Lowry dead; no one is mourning his loss. However who amongst the sandwich shop owning Siegel brothers whose store sells drugs; elderly widow Gail; Shayla and Tamara who are paying for grad schools through illicit webcam activities, and a few other players would actually kill the nasty punk.

Readers looking for a wacky San Francisco whodunit will want to JUMP into this amusing mystery. None of the suspects hide their disdain for “dead Ed”, which is a bit of a surprise for Sam as usually people avoid making nasty comments about the departed. The cast is zany bringing alive the eccentric charm of San Francisco as Tim Maleeny provides an amusing whodunit.

Harriet Klausner