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Gumshoe Outlaw: A Mortimer Angel Mystery

Review

Gumshoe Outlaw: A Mortimer Angel Mystery

“Oh, Lordy, here we go again.”

It seems that U.S. Attorney General Susan D. Kenny has gone missing, but she’s the boss of the FBI and other Alphabet Soup agencies in the nation’s capital that specialize in locating missing people. However, A.G. Kenny has fired much of the FBI, CIA and DOJ deadweight. Then why does Secret Service Special Agent Valentina Marchant mosey into the Green Room, Ma and Mort’s favorite watering hole in Reno? “Vale” suggests that they fly to D.C., but the Great Gumshoe --- finder of missing famous people --- is not interested. Mort has forsaken sarsaparilla, now imbibing Moose Drool ale. D.C. doesn’t have Moose Drool.

"Newcomers are advised to enjoy each Gumshoe novel chronologically to appreciate character development and nuances before taking on this whimsical and complex tale."

The next day, as Mort takes care of outdoor household chores, a young gal approaches. At the same time, a tire-screeching car zooms past, bullets whizzing and shattering windows. He grabs the gal, hops into his vehicle and skedaddles.

In 2021’s GUMSHOE GONE, Mort was the victim of a faux kidnapping. Now it’s the real thing. The gal doesn’t want him to drive to the police station. She points a snub-nose .38 caliber at his favorite kidney. Only, she’s like, you know, a teenager? That’s less than half of Mort’s 45 years. One swift move and he has the gun, emptying the chamber. The gum-chomping teenybopper wants to go to Winnemucca, Nevada. Mort’s mental calculator adds up the missing A.G., Special Agent Marchant and now an authentic abduction. “Life rarely is a progression of predictable events. One often has to go with the flow.”

The flow takes Mort on a road trip of unimaginable consequences, through Nevada, Utah and Montana. This well-crafted plot involves another kidnapping, and the nemesis-abductor forces Mort and a main character to rob various businesses while wearing minimal clothing. Think dental floss. The kidnapper has a horde of burner phones and voice changers, and tells them to be at a specified place and time. Surveillance cameras reveal where they stop. One wrong move and the hostage will have a finger amputated. A trio of key characters occupies the narrator’s seat in what is the most complex and satisfying Mortimer Angel novel.

Sue Grafton and Kinsey Millhone fans may recall that G IS FOR GUMSHOE and O IS FOR OUTLAW. Comparison of the two series ends with those coincidental names. Rob Leininger’s Gumshoe series is a bawdily entertaining mystery-with-a-message, with perhaps a little philosophy tossed in for good measure: “People don’t own people. Try to own a person and you lose them, one way or another.”

Newcomers are advised to enjoy each Gumshoe novel chronologically to appreciate character development and nuances before taking on this whimsical and complex tale.

Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy on May 27, 2022

Gumshoe Outlaw: A Mortimer Angel Mystery
by Rob Leininger

  • Publication Date: April 19, 2022
  • Genres: Fiction, Mystery
  • Paperback: 310 pages
  • Publisher: Independently published
  • ISBN-10: B09XZRHTDX
  • ISBN-13: 9798431113680