Dirty Work. (Rapid Reads series). Reed Farrel Coleman. Victoria, BC: Raven Books/Orca, 2013. 129 pp., pbk., pdf, epub, $9.95. ISBN 978-1-4598-0206-3 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-4598-0207-0 (pdf), ISBN 978-1-4598-0208-7 (epub). Grades 10 and up / Ages 15 and up. Review by Christina Pike. *** /4 Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy.

excerpt:

In Manhattan everything was about what was hot. Tomorrow didn’t matter. You could never be sure of tomorrow.

Then someone standing behind Gulliver’s chair spoke. The world stopped turning. “Hello, Gullie.”

The woman’s voice cut a hole through Gulliver’s chest and into his heart. He froze with panic. It couldn’t be Nina. Not Nina, not after all this time. Nina, who seventeen years ago had given him love and hope for two month. It was the only love, the only hope, he had ever known. Then she had robbed him of both things as quickly as she had given them.

He could not bring himself to turn around. Because it might be her, or because it might not be? Not even he knew the answer. He had to look. He gathered up every ounce of strength he had and turned his head.

In Dirty Work, Reed Farrel Coleman focuses his story on PI Gulliver Dowd’s latest case involving his trying to find a missing teen. Dowd has been hired by a mysterious stranger only to discover that this person is his high school sweetheart, Nina, who also happens to have broken his heart. As Dowd’s investigation progresses, the case becomes more and more complicated as does Dowd’s emotional state. Nina is not very open with the details of her past, and, in order to get Dowd to take on the case, she says that Anka is his daughter.

      The author has taken a simply story and, in developing it, has made the story very complicated. His main character, in addition to being a Private Investigator, also is a little person who is having difficulty dealing with the emotions that come with being different, as well as finding out he is a father. As well, Nina, his high school sweetheart, also has had a checkered past. These details distract from the story.

     A good read, although complicated.

Recommended.

Christina Pike is the principal of St. Paul’s Junior High in St. John’s, NL.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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