"Fast. Fun. Classic noir."

Baron R. Birtcher has created a fine start to his investigator series featuring Mike Travis. The novel ROADHOUSE BLUES is fast and competent. It is full of wit that makes you laugh out loud. It is full of characters that you quickly find yourself caring about. But more importantly it is full of suspense that keeps you turning pages.

Mike Travis is a newly retired LAPD Homicide detective. Planning to spend his life with his boat, he starts a small- time charter service. Before his beer has a chance to chill in the cooler his former partner calls him away from the serene and scenic ocean.

Before retiring a case Travis worked on went unsolved. Someone had been murdering people. The police worked to link the victims, but could not. They were men, women, white, black...there seemed no pattern. What connected the crimes was the similar M.O. A single knife wound to the heart was determined the cause of death, and the palm of the left hand of the victims was cut.

There was a lull in the murders back when Travis first retired. But now the body of a new victim is found and Travis might be the only one who can find and stop the killing before more bodies turn up.

From the beginning until the end I was unable to think about much else besides ROADHOUSE BLUES. Mostly told from the Mike Travis' point of view, Birtcher does a skillful job of switching to the point of view of the killer. This technique not only adds insight to the crimes committed, but it also adds tension for the reader. Quick chapters, great dialogue and full of action, ROADHOUSE BLUES is the type of noir I enjoy most. I look forward to the second in the series, RUBY TUESDAY.

Reviewed by Phillip Tomasso
Posted October 23, 2003

Summary

Mike Tavis had it made. Retired from LAPD Homicide he was building his charter sailing yacht business in the clear waters of Avalon Harbor. The light bruise from his holster had faded, along with preoccupation with the ugliness of big city streets. No more drug war corpses, marital fight corpses, hookers in gutters corpses. Now it was plain sailing and money coming in. Life was a spinnaker before the wind and a pension --- that is until the real killings started again, the ones that had the LAPD in knots. The guy was back. The tormented, grotesquely worked-over bodies proved that. When the phonecall came asking Mike to return, he was far from ready. But how do you turn down your old partner?