The Combat Zone -- Jed Power

A couple of years ago I reviewed the first novel in Jed Power's Dan Marlowe series.  Now Power's back with a new series about a Boston P. I. named Mike Malloy.  Malloy is working the area around Boston Square, and the year is 1972.  This is a bit earlier than a p.i. named Spenser came on the scene, and that's just as well.  Malloy isn't like Spenser.  He's a novice, for one thing, and he gets the crap kicked out of him only a few pages into the novel.  Not to mention that he has some serious flaws.

The story begins with a wandering daughter job, and it drags Malloy into the seedy world around Harvard Square, a world that's considerably gritter than most anywhere visited by Spenser.

One of Malloy's problems is that he's haunted by his experiences in Viet Nam.  Add in that beating he took, and it's not surprising that when his sidekick, appropriately called Stoney, offers him some primo coke that Malloy indulges.  As the story progresses, so does Malloy's dependence on his newfound pick-me-up.  I don't want to give away too much, so I'll just say that while the case gets solved, Malloy's problems don't.  The ending is a little darker than most, and it makes me wonder where Malloy's going from here.  

This is the real hardboiled goods with a bit of a different slant on the p.i. tale.  Check it out.