Bøker av Jerry Kennealy

“I’m dying as fast as I can,” Gaby Maoret tells private investigator Nick Polo. “But it’s not fast enough for them.”Them are the two brothers of Gaucho Carmichael, Gaby’s former lover, who disappeared seven years ago, shortly after granting Gaby a lifetime estate contract on a Telegraph Hill mansion in San Francisco, worth millions.Gaby has been living there, rent free, for all those years. She’s a noted artist, 75 years old, cancer ridden, but with a strong lust for life.She claims that the brothers, who will inherit the house when she dies, have been making threats on her life. Polo agrees to help her, and soon finds himself involved in an old murder case, a missing 5-million-dollar painting, an arson investigation and in conflict with a Mexican drug cartel enforcer.In order to help Gaby, Polo needs the assistance of his octogenarian sidekick, Mrs. Damonte, a self-described strega, a witch who can see into the future, and his Uncle Dominick, a bookie with connections to the gambling mobs in Las Vegas.And then he’s faced with the most perplexing problem of his career—does he tell the cops what he knows?

Nick Polo is back in his eleventh adventure, once again helped along by his sidekick, the indomitable octogenarian self-described witch, Mrs. Damonte... Billionaire vintner Paul Bernier sets San Francisco ex-cop, ex-con, private eye Nick Polo off on a hunt to find a kukri, a priceless golden jewel-encrusted 14th century dagger, designed by the Emperor of India. The dagger has a long, bloody history, passing between war lords throughout the ages, including Saddam Hussain. The search has Polo bumping heads with Bernier's vindictive stepdaughter, his eccentric household staff, a Miami con man, a crooked private investigator, a drug dealing nightclub owner, a New York Mafia Don, and two viscous murderers. When all seems lost, Polo gets help from Mrs. Damonte, a self-described Strega, a witch, who believes that a day without a wake is like a day without sunshine. Praise for POLO'S LONG SHOT: "Nick Polo is the Saul Goodman of private investigators. He's charming, persuasive, immune to adversity, and just dirty enough to get the job done. He never ceases to amaze and, just when you think he's been bested, always produces an ace in the hole. Not since James Crumley's C.W. Sughrue have I so avidly rooted for a fictional character." -Jonathan Ashley, author of South of Cincinnati Praise for the Nick Polo mysteries: "A California PI himself, Kennealy captures some of the classic Hammett/Ross spirit in the Nick Polo series." -Publishers Weekly "Briskly written, and because Kennealy himself was a working private eye, most persuasive." -Philadelphia Inquirer "The Polo series all have a strong tradition of tight plotting, crisp dialogue, and self-deprecating humor." -Booklist "Kennealy writes crisply, brings alive the streets of San Francisco, and plots clearly and interestingly." -Washington Post "The writing is simple and direct, the action nonstop." -The New York Times

In April of 1968 Steve McQueen arrives in San Francisco to film Bullitt. Rough-and-tumble SFPD Inspector Johnny O'Rorke, aka The Fixer, is the department's Executive Protection Officer. His job is to make sure that visiting celebrities are well taken care of. O'Rorke is instructed to take special care of McQueen; the city's movers and shakers are hoping to develop San Francisco into Hollywood North. McQueen takes a liking to O'Rorke, and when Russ Cortig, a member of his film crew, is busted at a wild Haight Ashbury party, he asks O'Rorke to try to have the charge dismissed. Fixing Cortig's arrest sheet is a minor problem, but it leads O'Rorke into a tangled web of intrigue and corruption that includes the murder of one of his longtime informers, a crossdresser who goes by the name of Vanessa the Undresser, tangling with a Chinatown drug lord, being shot at by a sadistic Soviet hit man, going up against a wealthy former Russian Mafia leader now living in San Francisco, dealing with a vicious local gangster, Alec Zek, aka The Swine, and a chasing after a priceless blue diamond known as the Stalin Blue. If that isn't complicated enough, O'Rorke breaks into a real sweat when McQueen asks him to make a screen test for a part in Bullitt. ***Praise for Jerry Kennealy*** "Kennealy always delivers hard-boiled excitement nicely with humor and style." -Booklist "Kennealy's characters, combined with his seasoned ability to weave several plot elements into a smooth whole, make his books stand out in the crowded thriller genre." -Publisher's Weekly "Kennealy's nicely crafted stories always hold my interest. Never a wasted word." -San Francisco Chronicle