Jack Dwyer Novel

Jack Dwyer is a former cop who got the acting bug after he was cast in a local public safety commercial. He started acting lessons, quit his job, and applied for his private investigator's license (in very nearly that order). He also took a security guard job to keep the wolves away. The novel opens with Dwyer on a riverside park murder site. He was called there by a panicked former girlfriend. A girlfriend who left him for another man, and a girlfriend Dwyer isn't quite over.The woman is nearly comatose when Dwyer arrives. She is distraught with grief and fear. The man who replaced Dwyer in her life is dead in the grass, and the gun that killed him is in her hand. The police arrive and everything fits neatly into a little package. No real investigation, other than into Jane Braniganthe girlfriendand the case seems open and shut, but something about it bothers Dwyer. That something may be nothing more than his feelings for Jane, but Dwyer doesn't think she did it.New, Improved Murder is a seriously good private eye novel. Jack Dwyer is a likable, compassionate, sometimes self-doubting reluctant good guy, who tends to stand on the outside. He is working class top to bottom, and the world through his eyes is a harsh, troubled place, with just enough hope and romanticism to keep him from the maudlin.The story is a straight shot. It is fast, dirty, and entertaining. The mystery is fine edged with enough clues for the reader to guess the killer, but nothing is in plain sight and it is doubtful most readers will guess it before the final pages. The supporting cast is a mixture of blackmailing psychopaths, prostitutes, nasty businessmen, broken children, and everyman scared; scared of life, death, and nearly everything else. The amazing thing, it is all this and funny, too. Not the story, or the characters, but rather Dwyer's take on the world as seen through his semi-smart ass commentary and dialogue.

Jack Dwyers, ex-cop turned amateur actor, is delighted when his agent lands him a role in a local production of Long Day's Journey IntoNight. The real drama starts, however, when Michael Reeves -- the play's angry, bullying director -- is found murdered, and Dwyer's friendStephen Wade -- a sweet has-been of an actor -- is charged with the crime. Dwyer knows that Wade has been set up. But who did it? And why?Was it David Ashton, an apparent fortune-seeker and heir to the Bridges Theater by marriage; or Richard Keech, the handsome, pushy youngactor who shared the woman whom the dead man loved? Or could it have been Anne Stewart -- the aging actress who carries a secret as dark asthat of the character she plays? And what of Lenora Bridges -- the matriarch of the theatrical family, who never comes out of her room in the building high above the stage?Sure, all the world's a stage but, for Dwyer, it's not that simple because a real man's life is on the line. In order to save him, Dwyer's going to have to discover what's really going on behind the scenes at the most bizarre, mysterious, complex theater company west of Times Square.

A BLAST FROM THE PASTEx-cop, security guard and sometime actor Jack Dwyer feels a familiar buzz when, after fifteen years, he sees Karen Lane, his old high school flame. But things are going so well with his girlfriend Donna, that he's pretty sure Karen is not what he needs right now. Still, he agrees to retrieve a suitcase for her which she'd left with her last lover, Glendon Evans, a psychiatrist.When Jack goes to Evans's ritzy house, he discovers the doctor out cold. Jack helps him come to, and they talk about the suitcase. Evans says he suspects its contents are important, but the suitcase has disappeared.Jack must warn Karen, and he knows he'll find her at their high school reunion. But Jack's little trip down memory lane doesn't last long, for murder will prevent one of his classmates from ever leaving the reunion..."The Dwyer books continue to be among the best of the new P.I. series, and Dwyer and Harris are rapidly becoming the modern-day Nick and Nora Charles." -- The Orlando Sentinel"As the narrator, Dwyer has an appealing, self-deprecating sense of humor....The dialogue is snappy, and Gorman writes brightly and crisply." -- The Washington Post Book World"The sequel to Murder Straight Up and New, Improved Murder will add to Gorman's laurels and the popularity of his Midwestern hero-narrator, Jack Dwyer....The author's salty humor and fast, tuned-in dialogue quicken the pace of a dandy mystery." -- Publishers Weekly."This quickly moving story offers believable characters, an excellent setting, and a touching poignancy." -- Booklist"Jack Dwyer is once again lured into a tangle of sex and violence....[His] narration is breezily sardonic." -- The Kirkus Reviews