The Bum's Rush

When a homeless woman says she's the mother of a deceased rock idol, sometimes private eye Leo Waterman takes it upon himself to investigate the lady's claim. With the help of "the boys", a band of dissolute deputies, Leo begins a life-threatening pursuit of the truth nobody wants to hear.Amazon.com ReviewSeattle's own Leo Waterman is back--along with the very motley crew of once and future alcoholics like Nearly Normal Norman who help him with his investigations. While looking for a missing member of the group, Leo and Co. stop a rape and get involved in the overdose death of a famous Seattle musician who might remind you of recent headlines. As in his two previous books in the Waterman series, Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca? and Cast in Stone, both available in softcover, G. M. Ford writes pungent, hilarious dialogue and manages to make us care about the lives of people we walk past on the street every day. From BooklistNow in its third installment, Ford's Leo Waterman novels have leapfrogged the competition among Seattle detective series. This time out, Leo has plenty on his plate: one of the "boys," the homeless cronies he often uses for legwork, has gone missing; he's hired to find a librarian who has scammed the city's automated acquisitions system out of 200 grand; and he's on the trail of a record producer who may have arranged the overdose of a grunge rock star. The various plots and their joint resolution come together seamlessly--aided by some nifty online sleuthing--but what really makes this series shine is the ensemble interplay between Leo and his crew of homeless assistants. Like the "rude mechanicals" in one of Shakespeare's dark comedies, Waterman's supporting cast not only adds humor to the proceedings but also offers ironic commentary on the lead characters and their mainstream world, undercutting pretentiousness while displaying their own character flaws with a believable mixture of panache and melancholy. A fine series that keeps getting better. Bill Ott