The ending maybe let me down a tiny bit, but the rest of this book was superb and even the ending was very good. His dialogue is full of smart one-liners and the narrator has a keen and wry perspective. The premise drew me in and there were twists and turns aplenty. I've read about a dozen mysteries recently and this is one of my two or three favorites.

This 1989 novel is number 3 in what turned out to be a 5 book series about Denver private eye Jacob Lomax who is aked to trace a missing girl one Stephanie Bellano who has gone missing after an arguement with Joseph Bellano her father and combination barber and bookie.The search takes on greater urgency with the murder of her father shortly after..
The search takes him into the world of organised crime in Denver and to a remote religious commune in the Colorado wilds .Along the ay he is beaten up,his friends threatend and he finds a new lady friend
R>Plotting is of Chippendalean dovetail tightness,with two lively shootouts near the end.Atmosphere is potently evoked with the bone freezing Denver December being well realised while Lomax is a reassuringly conventional old style PI-decent,tough and reliable.Indeeed characterisation is good all round and I recommend the book whole heartedly to any devotees of the private eye genre who want to see what the genre was like 20 or so years ago
I would love to know why the guy stopped writing in the early 90's He is missed....

This was a strong, adventurous mystery. He writes with a lot of cynical flair. Several good one-liners, and a pulsing chase scene at the end. The killer's identity isn't a huge surprise, but doesn't seem meant to be. The emphasis is on the characters and the setting. Nicely done!

Blood Stone is the second book in Michael Allegretto's now abandoned series about Denver P I Jacob Lomax.It helps if you have read the series opener Death on the Rocks but even without having done so there is much enjoyment to be derived from the book which stands up well in its own right.
Lomax is approached by a fellow investigator,the down at heels Fontaine,who some 20 years earlier was chief investigator for an insurance company that took a bath when five million dollars worth of antique jewellery were stolen,and he was unable to trace the jewels.Fired by the company he has spiralled down in the world but insists to Lomax that he knows how to locate the jewels and asks for assistance which is not forthcoming.Fontaine is then murdered and Lomax assaulted and his office turned over.
The man thought to have masterminded the robbery,Soames,is released from prison and Lomax takes on the job of locating a man named Meachum who has threatened to kill Soames blaming him for the death of his brother, His client is Helen,a friend of Soames and he soons falls head over heels for her
Matters get complicated when Meacham is shot dead and Lomax is set up on a murder charge by Lieutenant Dalrymple who scarcely troubles to conceal his loathing for Lomax
Before the case is resolved Lomax is shot at ,assaulted,left to rot in an abandoned mine shaft in the mountains ,and finds out the perfidious ways of the women in the case.There are run ins with murderous native Americans,the Two Hawks clan,and shoot outs aplenty to keep the plot churning over nicely
It is a very traditional PI tale and Lomax himself is akin to characters like Marlowe,Walker and Archer .He is an ex-cop,a widower,with the ability to deliver snappy one liners and well able to take care of himself in a tight corner
The book breaks no new ground but traditional ingredients are assembled with enough smoothness to let us know why the series gleaned an Edgar on original publication
Private eye novel readers are urged to track down the book and others by Allegretto,which remind us that even below the very top of the genre tree there is still alot of good material awaiting rediscovery.

Michael Allegretto is probably best known for his Edgar winning books about Denver PI Jacob Lomax but The Suitor is a stand alone book and a good one too
It is set in Denver-the author's home city-and revolves around Valerie Rowe,a personable young divorcee,living with her son Matthew and just staring to make a name for herself as an artist,her first solo exhibition being just around the corner. She also has a stable relationship with Greg a local print shop owner.While strolling in Colfax,with the ownwer of the gallery about to stage the exhibition,Brenda,she is set upon by a purse snatcher whose escape is foiled by Leonard,more by accident than design although she thinks it an act of courage.
She invite him to lunch with herself and Brenda -who makes no secret of her contempt for him-thus leading him to think she is serious about him.
Big mistake.Leonard is a disturbed young man He lives with his wheelchair user,religious fanatic mother and ,we learn,has killed in the past,burying the body of a lady of the night, in the woods near his family's mountain cabin
He lays siege to Valerie -flowers,candy,-and believes when she spurns him it is at the instigation of Greg and not of her own free will
He steps up his campaign which comes to include murder,attempted murder and eventually kidnapping ...
Leonard is a genuinely creepy villain-persuaded of his own worth and a total control freak,he evokes both pity and terror
Valerie and Greg are a bit too much the conventional hero and heroine ,while the mother could have emerged as a stronger,more sinister influence than she does but ,well and crisply written,this is driving suspense novel that most of its readers will enjoy