Fusilli, Jim – HARD, HARD CITY

[LJ Roberts]

HARD, HARD CITY (Private Investigator-New York-Cont) – Ok Fusilli, Jim – 4^th in series
BerkeleyPrime Crime, 2005- Paperback

PI Terry Orr's daughter, Bella, has asked him to find a talented teenager, Allie Powell, who is missing from the home of John McPorter, a family friend, along with $471 and some documents. When Terry goes to the boy's hometown in New Jersey he is first beaten and then nearly killed when his car is forced off the road.

*** The underlying plot in this story is one of family relationships; Terry's with his parents, his late wife and child, and his daughter and current girlfriend. The problem I had was due to not having read the previous books in the series. I didn't have a relationship with the characters or a sympatric understanding of their relationship with each other, which left me with a feeling of disconnect. The interjection of Orr's thoughts caused the flow to be choppy. Although the book was set in New York, the author didn't use the city to full advantage and it could have been anywhere.