[Mike Angel Mystery 01] • Dark Quarry · A Mike Angel Private Eye Mystery

Synopsis of Dark Quarry, by David H. Fears

This first in the "Dark" series of Mike Angel, Private Investigator mysteries is a wild ride, set in the New York/New Jersey and Chicago areas in 1960. If you like complex plots, soul-tortured protagonists, and suspense, you'll be hooked by this series. The first volume is historical fiction, involving names and places connected with remnants of the infamous Purple Gang of the 1930s. Suspense, seduction and even some supernatural elements are involved, though this is more of a mystery series in the vein of Chandler, Spillane, Hammett.

Burdened by the unsolved murder of his father, a career NYPD lieutenant whose "voice" warns whenever danger is near, 30-year-old Mike Angel is a Korean vet and bored private investigator of insurance fraud. When a wealthy ex-college buddy hires him to tail Joe Ambler, a petty blackmailer, Mike fixates on Kimbra, the blackmailer's woman, a stunning beauty who commits murder. Mike impulsively helps her dispose of the body and finds himself on the wrong side of the law.

Mike then discovers the dead man was the grandson of a feared and legendary mob leader, founder of Detroit's Purple Gang of the 1920s and 30s, possibly still alive. The same week, a well-dressed thug comes looking for Ambler, and the wealthy buddy who hired Mike runs off with Kimbra and is murdered in the Bahamas.

Kimbra disappears. While searching for her Mike stumbles across connections to the Russian-Cuban branch of the ring responsible for a string of unsolved murders in three states.

Seduction, deception, murders, shootouts, and crooked officials take Mike on a dangerous mission to the final showdown at Russian mob headquarters outside the small town of Mattoon, Illinois, where he hopes to discover who killed his father and save the life of Nika, a woman he has fallen for. You may have quite a few laughs at Mike's sarcasm and approach throughout. Consistenly rated high.