Baby Shark’s High Plains Redemption
by Robert Fate
Published by Capital Crime Press
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Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler, and Dashille Hammett may be dead, but the PI novel lives on thanks to Robert Fate. The new edition in the Baby Shark series, Baby Shark’s High Plains Redemption, is what ever reader wants: a great read. While I missed some of the back story by starting with the third book in the series, it was not detrimental to keeping my rapt attention in this fast-paced novel.
Baby Shark is ahead of her time. A gun-toting PI in 1957 isn’t the career most young women aspire to. Then on the other hand, neither is pool hustling. However, Kristen Van Dijk, a.k.a. Baby Shark, isn’t your ordinary young woman. Her only family is her partner, Otis; a dog named Jim; and a man whom I couldn’t quite figure out named Henry. A platinum blonde who dresses in black all the way down to her boots, Kristen packs more guns and knives than any of the modern bad guys on “Law & Order.”
Kristen and Otis are supposed to deliver the ransom money for a beautiful, yet simple, young Oklahoma gal, Savannah Smike. When Kristen shows up at the rendezvous site, guns start blazing. Savannah’s brother, Lester, is killed in the shootout along with a host of other bad guys. Caught in the crosshairs of rival bootleggin’ gangs, Otis and Kristen grab the red-haired gal and hightail it out of there. They don’t go alone though. There are at least two sets of bad guys after them, but Kristen and Otis outsmart them all.
The novel’s action takes place between Otis and Kristen’s office in Fort Worth and Savannah’s parents’ home in rural Oklahoma, near Broken Bow. There is lots of shooting, fighting, fast driving, and all-hell-breakin’-loose action.
While Otis may be rather stereotypical of the private investigator, it’s okay. Kristen’s uniqueness lends a new beat to the tune. When Otis is sidelined and almost dies from bullet wound, it’s up to Kristen to put all the pieces together and figure out what’s really happening.
Baby Shark’s High Plains Redemption has a bit of a wandering narrative problem, but not enough to cause too many problems. The pages flew as fast as the bullets.
Armchair Interviews says: Fast, fun read.
Author’s Web site: http://www.RobertFate.com