The Judge

Good PI action thriller that took a little too much time in introspection. Roark takes a judge as a client when the man in the robe finds himself being blackmailed. Ex-cons, shady lawyers, probation officers, court clerks, and others make appearances in a variety of roles in a story that entertains.

Quick read, active story, superficial characters, reminding me of Spenser books… I enjoyed it for entertainment and the descriptions of Boston scenes and landmarks. Plot and characters were not well-developed with some jarring disconnects. Best if read for fun and not taken too seriously.

Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for the opportunity to read this ARC.

For those after a good old-styled 1980s PI novel, Peter Colt’s The Judge certainly delivers the goods.

Set in Boston in 1985, it opens with ex-military operative turned private investigator Andy Roark, being offered a new job. Boston judge Ambrose Messer is being blackmailed, and he needs Roark’s help to stop the culprit.

Messer is judging the bench trial of a chemical company accused of knowingly dumping chemical waste in an unsafe manner, causing birth defects and cancer. The evidence against them is overwhelming, but the message from the blackmailer is clear: If you don’t want the world to know your secret, the chemical company wins. Messer doesn’t want to let a threat corrupt his judgement, but then again, he could lose everything if his secret comes out.

Roark agrees to the job and quickly plunges into action, determined to find the blackmailer before it’s too late. But the disturbing, unexpected revelations he uncovers make him a target of some very dangerous people, who soon seem determined not only to wreck the life of his client, but to destroy Roark’s too.

This is a very competently done and entertaining PI novel. The plotting is a bit formulaic, but Roark is a good narrator and there are some decent surprises, and gunfights, along the way to the exciting conclusion. The 1980s milieu is nicely evoked, and Colt’s descriptions really make you feel the cold and slippiness of a Boston winter.

An enjoyable, quick read that reminded me of the better PI novels written in the 1980s by authors like Robert Parker and Les Roberts. I also really liked the ‘drone view’ cover.