Jack Flippo Is Back on the Job in Big D

This is the third installment in Doug J. Swanson's series featuring an engaging, down-on-his-luck Dallas P.I. named Jack Flippo. Divorced, living in a crummy apartment and working out of an even more down-at-the-heels office located above a 24-hour coffee shop, Jack has a client list that few other P.I.s would envy. Things begin to look up though, when Jack is hired by a former stripper named Sherri Plunkett. Sherri had the good sense to marry well and her elderly husband has lately died leaving her three million dollars.

Sherri has recently reconnected with the daughter that she gave up for adoption many years ago. The daughter, Sandi, is a frisky blonde actress from L.A. who had a bit part in a syndicated detective series that was found mostly on late-night cable channels. Sandi has come to Dallas to get to know her birth mother, but someone seems to be stalking Sandi. Sherri is naturally worried and offers Jack much more than his usual daily fee to keep an eye on Sandi while trying to find out who is after her.

At the same time, Jack himself is being stalked by two relatively hapless criminals. One is a giant thug named Fred Mertts; the other is Teddy Tunstra II, who refers to himself as Teddy Deuce. Jack was instrumental in sending Teddy to prison a couple of years ago, and Teddy and Fred met while incarcerated. Now released well ahead of schedule, Teddy is determined to take revenge on Jack. Teddy and Fred have more than a little trouble getting their act together but you certainly don't want to be the poor mope that gets between them and their target.

Swanson has created here a great cast of well-drawn comic characters and there are any number of laugh-out-loud moments. This is not a book intended to be taken very seriously, but it's witty in an intelligent way and it's really fun to just sit back and go along for the ride. In the end, of course, poor Jack Flippo has no idea who he can trust or how he's going to find his way out of any number of tricky situations, but he's not one to ever let down a client, even one as ditzy as Sherri Plunkett. The reader will certainly not feel let down either.