Lots of action in this mystery with a private detective, mobsters, and bloody gangland fighting. The book is well-written with believable characters.

Last fall, I was fortunate enough to discover Brash Books and their plan to reissue Jack Lynch's Peter Bragg series, originally published in the 1980s. I enjoyed hard-boiled detective fiction, and I could tell right away that Peter Bragg would not disappoint. I think I'm in love (although Bragg does seem to be a bit promiscuous with his affections), and I can't thank Brash Books enough for rescuing him from obscurity.

The Dead Never Forget is the first in the Bragg series. In it, Bragg is initially hired by former (?) mobster Armando Barker to investigate death threats he has received against not only himself, but also those he cares about, including his young step-daughter. Despite Barker's insistence that the threats must be related to his current life in San Francisco, Bragg senses that there is more to the story than meets the eye and heads off to Sand Valley, Barker's hometown. Sand Valley has its own criminal underbelly, reminiscent of Harlan County, Kentucky, in Elmore Leonard's Raylan Givens stories. Bragg is correct that the threats against Barker are related to his time in Sand Valley, but even Bragg is surprised by the nature of that connection. En route to the book's resolution, there are plenty of fights, deaths, and a dramatic, but unexpected, showdown in the streets of Sand Valley.

The Thrilling Detective website describes the Bragg series as "damned good, featuring a hard but believable hero, and narrated in a straight, unpretentious manner, literate without being lofty, not unlike the work of Hammett himself." I couldn't agree more and look forward to Bragg's next adventure.

I received a free copy of The Dead Never Forget through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Written in the style of bygone days so no cell phones here. Plain old gumshoe work amidst the chaos of corruption in a style somewhere between old west shoot ups and mob style tactics. Following the twists and turns of a plot contrived by misguided revenge seekers and yet with the nostalgia of simpler times, such as seeking a payphone. While some of the lines seem somewhat elementary in their simplicity it is never the less an entertaining and engaging story. Liken it to watching a favorite old movie without quite knowing what happens next and it becomes time well spent amongst the pages of a good story.