Damaged Goods
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
2021 SHAMUS AWARD NOMINEE,
This Marine veteran may have survived combat, but will she survive this case?
Unlicensed private eye and Marine veteran Erica Jensen works as a "researcher", who performs background checks, conducts surveillance, and takes on other dubious assignments, while battling post-traumatic stress and an opioid addiction. However, when a wealthy man hires her to find his missing daughter, Erica ends up with more work than she bargained for.
While trying to find the daughter, Erica stumbles across a murder victim, along with evidence that raises even more questions. Did the missing daughter know the victim? Could the dead man have been connected with an artifacts smuggling ring? Where does a threatening letter written in a Cyrillic script fit? As Erica continues to probe, she attracts the attention of people willing to kill to keep their secrets.
A FEW KIND WORDS ABOUT THE BOOK
"Best private eye novel I've read in ages. Pitch perfect pace and plot with a well-drawn protagonist."
— M. Ruth Myers, Shamus Award winning author of the Maggie Sullivan mystery series
"Marine veteran turned unlicensed PI Erica Jensen is a flawed and intriguing heroine in this meticulous mystery. Charlie Fox would work alongside her any day!"
— Zoë Sharp, author of BAD TURN
"A gritty, stunning portrayal of the impact and response to post traumatic stress, packaged inside a compelling mystery."
— Frank Zafiro, author of the CHARLIE-316 series
"Erica Jensen is the tough PTSD-suffering Marine veteran and unlicensed PI in author Debbi Mack's new series (apart from her Sam McRae books). In Damaged Goods, an apt metaphor, Erica seeks a missing person but stumbles onto antiquities smugglers—or worse. Offering up sleek prose and adopting the world-weary detective's First Person style to great effect, Mack keeps the action rolling along while fleshing out a keeper of a protagonist. Excellent read for neo-noir and private eye fans!"
— W.D. Gagliani, author of THE JUDAS HIT and the Nick Lupo Series
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Erica Jensen, the heroine of this sterling series launch from Mack (the Sam McRae series), survived her deployment to Afghanistan in 2011 as a member of a team of female Marines "who performed valuable back-up to the ground troops and intel-gathering duties." But the concussion she received from an explosion left her addicted to painkillers, a condition that barred her from later getting a PI license in Maryland. Instead, Jensen takes on research assignments from clients with their own reasons for not going to someone with official credentials. Her latest such job comes from Stuart Blaine, an affluent real-estate developer with a drug-dealing conviction, whose college student daughter, Melissa, has been out of touch for four days. Blaine fears something bad has happened, and Jensen agrees to spend a little time tracking down Melissa. Her discovery of a murder victim connected with her employer raises the stakes. Mack never makes her lead's work feel anything but realistic and captures the psyche of an addict's struggles. Fans of flawed but empowered female detectives will be pleased with this exceptional mix of character study and detective work. (Self-published)
