Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Ronnie Gene-Jon Mills

The Ronnie Gene


Jon Mills

Five Star, Nov 16 2011, $25.95

ISBN 9781432825164



The Jamos marketing firm went bankrupt leaving late fifties and suffering from preexisting health conditions Stanley Jamos and Dave Mosit without jobs or health insurance. Stanley finds a health insurance company that will cover small firms. Thus he and Dave open up Jamos & Mosit, Inc. Private Investigators who do not work cases, but the former has coverage for his Parkinson condition and the later for his Alzheimer’s.



Someone kills Pete Tilden, their third partner from the marketing firm. Chicago PD Detectives Birkoltz and Hustad interview Jamos who offers nothing enlightening; they do not try to chat with Mosit. Soon afterward, Ronnie Dumat, Jamos’ college lover who broke his heart almost four decades ago, calls him insisting she needs to see him. She wants him to find the business plan Pete wrote just before he was killed. However, the simple first case inquiry proves convoluted and dangerous as the sexagenarian unhealthy sleuths begin to uncover betrayals by their friends stretching back forty years.



The Ronnie Gene is a timely private investigative satire that will remind readers of the recent debates in which the audience said let them die. The story line is character driven by the lead “amateur” sleuths who are written off by everyone as too old, too ill and too senile, but tenacity and intelligence keep them digging through the miasma backstabbing of their fellow Wisconsin grads. Although somewhat over the top of the Willis Tower, fans will enjoy Jamos & Mosit, Private Investigators, on their first case, a personal one.



Harriet Klausner



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