Night Shadows Book

Night Shadows by Ron Ely is an excellent detective novel. I haven't seen all that many, at least since around 1980, that actually came off as both urbane and hard-boiled, but this one manages to tackle both ends of the spectrum with ease.

Ron Ely, best known for his TV role as Tarzan in the late sixties, seems to be the exception to the rule that books by "stars" are usually not that great. This was a well-crafted mystery, with a lot of twists and turns. While I was able to guess a lot of the macguffins, there was a couple of them at the end that took me completely by surprise. Ron has a very detailed style of writing, and his main characters aren't the cardboard stereotypes you see in a lot of these books. Jake Sands comes off an a fully-realized individual - a man of sophisticated tastes, old world charm and seething action when necessary.

This is, to put it in the style of yore, a classy book. I purposefully slowed down while reading, since I was enjoying the characters and the tale so much I really didn't want it to end. I'm planning on picking up Ron's other Jake Sands novel, East Beach, next month. Definitely recommended reading for mystery and series detective fans!