Three Shot Burst by Phillip DePoy

First Sentence:  David Waters ordered a gin martini, no olives, at Mary's Shallow Grave, just after six in the evening.

       

Foggy Moskowitz is Child Protective Services in Fry's Bay, Florida.  Lena is a highly intelligent 14-year-old girl with no known parents or address.  Having shot David Waters, son of a wealthy Seminole Ironstone Waters, three times at point-blank range, Foggy is called to help.  Besides the girl's age, something seems very off about the situation to Foggy.  Can he, with the help of John Horse, keep her safe from the police, Ironstone's men, and the Columbian drug cartel until Foggy has all the answers?

      

There's nothing better than a book which captures one's attention from the very start.  DePoy certainly does that, not just the opening events, but with his voice—"We doubtless made something of an odd pair in Fry's Bay, Florida, home of the slowest moving cultural evolution in the Western Hemisphere."—and his dialogue—"'He was drunk out of his mind, and I was scared.'  'You don't look scared to me,' I assessed.  She glanced over at the dead body. 'I'm not now.'  ''Yeah, well – right.  Now he's dead.'

      

DePoy really has created the most wonderful characters.  Lena truly is a 14-year-old going on 30.  She can definitely handle herself.  For Alan Bradley fans, Lena reminds on a bit of Flavia de Luce but on steroids, and with guns.  Foggy is a Brooklyn Jew who once ran numbers and boosted cars, but now is a CPS officer who keeps kosher.  John Horse is a Seminole shaman with power in his voice. There is a bit of O'Henry about these characters.

      

This is an example of a plot starting off in one direction, then veering off in another.  There are a lot of well-done twists and turns along the way accompanied by a fair amount of shooting.  One certainly never gets bored.  When things really start, they happen fast but never so much that one can't keep up.

      

"Three Shot Burst" is a really good read.  The final solution is wonderful with seeming nods along the way to Robert Frost and Hemmingway.  It's hard to beat that.

THREE SHOT BURST (CPS-Foggy Moskowitz-Florida-Contemp) – G+

      DePoy, Phillip – 2^nd in series

      Severn House – March 2018