monkey's fist

I just finished the The Monkey's Fist by William Pease. I haven't read Pease before, so it was refreshingly different. Think: gumshoe detective novel meets spy novel.

I won't say that this story was clear of the detective novel and spy novel genre-liciousia that you typically find in these stories; in fact, it was lousy with them. But they were combined in new and interesting ways in this story. The plotting is pretty bullet-proof, and it has some interesting twists that kept me reading, so I'd be interested to see if some of his other stories are more original, or if he writes his other stories in a similar story arc.*

Mystery, international intrigue, cloak and dagger, good-ol'-fashioned-police-work, back stabbing, money laundering, sex, family trouble, secreter than secret organizations, and a little love interest. So yes, you've read all this before, but... maybe not in the same book.

This is kind of an oldie. I found this at the book sale at my library. The copyright date is 1996, and I think it was originally published in England.

* According to Tangled Web UK, Pease has a few other stories that also include the gumshoe, Eddie Nickles.