Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Valentino Pier (Gulliver Dowd) by Reed Farrel Coleman

Great things can come in small packages, and this series is proof of that. Not only does it feature a little person as a  PI but it is also a pretty short novel. It's also a fantastic piece of PI fiction.
Gulliver Dowd, a little person and PI offers to help a street kid find his missing (and aptly-named) dog Ugly. When the kid gets beaten up Dowd is determined to find out who was behind that. Meanwhile he falls in love with the assistant of a veterinarian which results in some interesing conversations about how ''normal'' anyone really is.
Dowd is such a wonderful character. He is 100% old-fashioned PI on one hand, on the other hand the fact he's a little person gives him some unique perspective that gives the story just that bit extra to make it stand out.
This is a novel in the Rapid Reads imprint, which means it is easy to read. Short sentences, not too many difficult words. This by no means makes the story any less interesting, just a faster read. I really think a lot of writers can learn a lot about writing a fast-paced, readable book by studying Coleman's prose in this one and it was an inspiration for my own writing. So DON'T hesitate to pick this up because it's a Rapid Reads, instead DO pick it up for that reason.

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