Tim Maleeny Review
(2009) Jump
Sam McGowan, recent widower and retired cop, hesitates when his friend and former partner Lt. Danny Rodriguez asks him for a favor. Sam’s unlovable landlord falls to his death from the 20th floor of the Golden Towers apartment building – the very floor on which Sam lives. The San Francisco police department is under pressure to reduce its pile of unsolved homicides so Rodriguez is more than happy to let Ed Lowry’s death go into the books as a suicide. But the lieutenant is not sure it wasn’t homicide – so he asks Sam to do some unofficial snooping among his 20th floor neighbors.
And what a bunch that is: the “Sandwich Brothers,” entrepreneurs who are in way over their heads; two young women working toward advanced degrees, who have come up with a creative way to finance their educations; a computer guru with a voice like an angel; two quirky retired folks; and a B-movie producer with a penchant for porn. Sam thinks they make up a great suspect list.
Jump is an interesting mélange of mystery subgenres. Like a cozy, it has a small, closed community from which the suspects are drawn and victims no one will miss; but the coarse language that turns every page blue is anything but cozy. Jump could be categorized as a procedural because Sam does utilize standard police methodology; but he also uses tactics that aren’t at all by-the-book. So, I’ll go along with the book blurb that calls it a thriller – albeit a funny one.
Jump is not at all my usual cup of (herb) tea, but once the story engaged me, I found it very difficult to put down. The writing is top-notch, the omniscient third-person narrator delightful all by himself -- with some of his humor subtle, some laugh-out-loud. I can’t recall an author who makes uses of transitions between chapters like Tim Maleeny – that’s not something readers typically notice, but I found them totally cool. Jump is a stunning book, however it’s categorized.
By Diana. First published in Mystery News, August-September 2009 issue.
Jump is "not quite cozy."
