Monday, 7 April 2025

Book ~ "Shallow Grave" (2017) Alex Segura and Dave White

From Goodreads ~ Five years ago, Gilbert "GG" Garcia - bassist for beloved New Brunswick, NJ, indie band Magna Carta - went off the grid. At the request of GG's sister, P.I. Jackson Donne made some inquiries but hit a wall. Aside from allegations of mob involvement and illegal betting, the leads had dried up and GG was in the wind. Soon enough, the case went cold and Donne moved on. 

Five years later, Miami P.I. Pete Fernandez gets a frantic call from an old friend - a police detective stationed in his old stomping grounds of New Jersey - asking for a favor he can't discuss over the phone. Bruised and battered from a near-fatal run-in with a lethal serial killer, Pete welcomes the brief change of scenery. Or escape.

Pete discovers the GG case has frozen solid, with only one flicker of hope for solving it: talking to the first detective who tried to find the local-boy-gone-missing. But there's one problem: Jackson Donne is in prison for murder. Pulled into an uneasy alliance with the older jaded detective, Pete must pick up the pieces of Donne's work to learn the missing bassist's final fate, while also avoiding an unexpected mob turf war and locals who prefer the past stay buried.

Five years ago, New Jersey P.I. Jackson was investigating the disappearance of Gilbert "GG" Garcia, the bassist for a local indie band, and got nowhere. Five years later, GG's sister has never given up hope of finding her brother. She works with a police officer's wife and the police officer asks his friend and Miami P.I., Pete to reopen the case. Jackson is now in prison so Pete is basically on his own putting together the pieces of the cold case.

This is a novella involving Pete of the Pete Fernandez Mystery series by Alex Segura and Jackson of the Jackson Donne series by Dave White. I've read the first two in the Pete Fernandez series recently so knew Pete's backstory but wasn't familiar with Jackson's. It don't know if it was the combination of two writers' styles or the story itself but I found it a bit confusing and not very interesting. Maybe it would have helped if I'd read the Jackson Donne series books to catch up (I'm interested enough to check the first one in the series out). As a head's up, there is violence and swearing.

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