Frankly Murder by the Book by Bob Liter is one of the best modern detective stories I have read in a long time. It manages to capture the hard boiled detective flavor without being either a parody or contrived. Murder by the Book is part of the Nick Bancroft series.

Nick Bancroft is a former reporter who inherited a rundown detective agency from an uncle. Nick isn't really a detective by training and does not even have a PI license. He gets hired to look into the murder of a young woman who was found injected full of a date-rape drug. The investigation soon turns dangerous.

Author Bob Liter has managed to combine many of the best aspects of both the hard boiled detective with the amateur sleuth into a believable whole which is no easy task. I liked the first person, wise cracking narration by by the Bancroft character - it was a real hark back to Chandler.

Five out of five stars. Author Bob Liter gets on the short list for my buying more of his books in this series sooner rather than later.

You can find Murder by the Book as an ebook at Fictionwise.

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