From the first page to the last page I was hooked. Combination of good and not so good sides of Foggy were brilliant. The care and compassion he showed for the children and his friends was portrayed wonderfully. I found John Horse to be a lighter side to the otherwise fairly dark story line, and do actually still wonder what he is or at least how the ending came about. Not sure whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that the ending left me thinking there should be more. Would recommend this book to anyone.

ICE PICK (CPS-Foggy Moskowitz-Florida/NY/Oklahoma-Contemp) – G+
DePoy, Phillip – 3rd in series
Severn House Publishers; First World Publication edition – Sept 2018
First Sentence: Sammy 'Icepick' Franks drove his snappy black Lincoln town car up to the docks at three in the morning.
Two Seminole children were witnesses to a dog being shot and a body being dumped. Foggy Moskowitz is Child Protection Services in Fry's Bay, Florida, so it makes sense that Officer Brady would call him at 4 a.m. Foggy becomes even more involved when Officer Watkins identifies the body as someone he'd been friends with when he lived in the Bronx. But nothing is ever simple after learning the children's mother, along with a number of other Seminole women, is missing, and getting her back involves trips back to New York, and on to Oklahoma with Shaman John Horse.
DePoy creates wonderful imagery—"I never knew Florida could be so cold before I came here from Brooklyn. But with Blake Road, it wasn't so much the temperature. It was more the way a tombstone feels, or the sound of a late-night train." With his introduction to Topalargee (the Wonder), the little girl, one receives a very good, succinct description of Foggy's background.
Not only does DePoy write unique, interesting characters, but one can appreciate that he creates girls who are intelligent and strong, regardless of their age. The names of the children can be a bit confusing at first. The girl is Topalargee/The Wonder/Sharp and is very good with knives, while her brother is Little Cloud, an excellent tracker. John Horse is the type of character one always enjoys, especially if one likes characters who are somewhat mystical—"Some people in his family told me he was over a hundred years old. Two told me that his body was dead but his spirit was unwilling to go along with it. What you'd call a Trickster, with a capital T."
A plot twist sends Foggy and John Horse to New York City. The reference to Nixon's Organized Crime Control Act reminds one of the time period in which the book is set. There are several really well-done plot twists and that feeling of never knowing who one should trust. Trying to sort the bad guys from the really bad guys becomes a challenge.
"Ice Pick" has great dialogue and humor. Whenever one starts to think of Foggy as relatively harmless, he proves he is anything but. There's a bit of Kipling here, and a wonderful ending.

This is a book full of characters and nicknames. Foggy is an agent of child protective services, but he is also a car thief. PanPan is his Brooklyn sidekick. Two children, Sharp and Lamb see a body dumped into the water and tell the police. That is the last straightforward moment in this very good, very entertaining, story delivered in staccato deadpan fashion.

This is my first read in the Foggy Moscowitz series. I found the book a little confusing at first (but to be fair that’s probably my fault for not reading the first two books in the series, which I intend to rectify!) as there is a lot going on but Depoy masterfully pulls it altogether so stick with it, believe me, its worth it. Very well written with great plots and interesting characters. For those of my friends who like mysteries, I will definitely be recommending this series.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House Publishing for a digital galley of this novel.

Author Phillip DePoy has written another enjoyable novel in his Foggy Moscowitz series set in Florida in 1976. Foggy fled from Brooklyn to hide out for a crime he committed and has somehow (and I still don't understand the route from criminal to State of Florida employee) gotten himself hired as the Child Protective Services officer for Fry's Bay. When Foggy gets the call about two children reporting a dead body he finds himself dealing with two kids from the Cherokee tribe who are looking for their mother who has disappeared. Things get even more complicated when it turns out the victim died from a "signature" killing by one of Foggy's old acquaintances in Brooklyn, a contract killer for...….well, best not to say the name of the group Icepick works for. Prepare yourself for a road trip with Foggy and John Horse from Florida to New York to Oklahoma and back to Florida - with multiple dangerous situations along the way.

So how can a story with so many threads manage to tie up satisfactorily? Basically you have to trust to the writing skills of the author. I recommend you do trust him because DePoy quickly became one of my favorite authors when I read the first Foggy Moscowitz story. There is humor cleverly mixed in with the murder, but one of the things I like so much about this series is the light of truth DePoy shines on the horrible treatment by the United States government of the Cherokee tribes in Florida and Oklahoma.

I find these mysteries absolutely require that I suspend belief in having the situations actually happen. However, if you can relax and follow where the author wants you to go, you will enjoy getting to know Foggy, the folks he left behind in Brooklyn and the Cherokee in their compound deep in the swamp. If you find yourself intrigued by the situation DePoy talks about with the Cherokee tribes in Oklahoma, I would suggest you read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. It is an amazing history of what happened to Cherokee tribal members when the "useless" land they were given in Oklahoma was discovered to contain vast quantities of petroleum products.