Jump
By Tim Maleeny
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
"Fast-paced and funny, this is a perfectly blended cocktail of escapism."—Publishers Weekly
When the most hated landlord in San Francisco takes a jump off the roof of his own building, it isn't hard to find suspects. The police want to call it a suicide, since both the Mayor and press are complaining about the dismal closure rate for homicide investigations.
But ex-cop Sam McGowan knows it was murder. He also knows that anyone living on the top floor of the building should be a suspect, including himself. So Sam decides to get to know his neighbors: a lonely jazz singer more than willing to confess to any crime; two young women paying for graduate school by operating a website that reveals a lot more than their SAT scores; a B-movie producer with a swollen prostate and shrinking bank balance; and the brothers at the end of the hall who just quit their day jobs to sell marijuana for the Mexican mob.
The only thing they have in common is an agreement that their dead landlord got what he deserved—and that one of them is probably responsible. As more bodies surface and alliances shift, Sam finds himself jumping between his old life as a cop and his new one as a murder suspect....
Tim Maleeny
Winner of a Macavity award and acclaimed by Lee Child, Tim Maleeny's short fiction appears in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen, and Crimespree Magazine.
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Reviews for Jump
11 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sam McGowan, recent widower and retired cop, hesitates when his friend and former partner Lt. Danny Rodriguez asks him for a favor. Sam’s unlovable landlord falls to his death from the 20th floor of the Golden Towers apartment building – the very floor on which Sam lives. The San Francisco police department is under pressure to reduce its pile of unsolved homicides so Rodriguez is more than happy to let Ed Lowry’s death go into the books as a suicide. But the lieutenant is not sure it wasn’t homicide – so he asks Sam to do some unofficial snooping among his 20th floor neighbors.And what a bunch that is: the “Sandwich Brothers,” entrepreneurs who are in way over their heads; two young women working toward advanced degrees, who have come up with a creative way to finance their educations; a computer guru with a voice like an angel; two quirky retired folks; and a B-movie producer with a penchant for porn. Sam thinks they make up a great suspect list. Jump is an interesting mélange of mystery subgenres. Like a cozy, it has a small, closed community from which the suspects are drawn and victims no one will miss; but the coarse language that turns every page blue is anything but cozy. Jump could be categorized as a procedural because Sam does utilize standard police methodology; but he also uses tactics that aren’t at all by-the-book. So, I’ll go along with the book blurb that calls it a thriller – albeit a funny one.Jump is not at all my usual cup of (herb) tea, but once the story engaged me, I found it very difficult to put down. The writing is top-notch, the omniscient third-person narrator delightful all by himself -- with some of his humor subtle, some laugh-out-loud. I can’t recall an author who makes uses of transitions between chapters like Tim Maleeny – that’s not something readers typically notice, but I found them totally cool. Jump is a stunning book, however it’s categorized. By Diana. First published in Mystery News, August-September 2009 issue. Review based on publisher- or author-provided review copy.