Ting-A-Ling - Mike Faricy

   2013; 307 pages.  Book 7 (out of 32) in the “Dev Haskell – Private Investigator” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Airport/Beach Read; Hard-Boiled Mystery; Private Investigator Mystery.  Overall Rating: 6½*/10.

 

    Danielle Roxbury is interested in hiring Private Investigator Dev Haskell, whose cash flow is looking rather anemic lately.  True, the job she wants him to do doesn’t involve much actual investigating.  It seems she loaned fifty thousand dollars to some sleazeball named Renee Paris, and she’s having trouble getting him to pay her back.

 

    To his credit, Dev has told her she’d be better off hiring some junkyard dog attorney who could haul Paris’s butt into court.  But her case is woefully weak – she’s got nothing in writing to prove that she ever gave Paris a penny, let alone fifty grand.

 

    Nonetheless, she’d still like Dev to nose around a bit and see what he can find and/or do, to help “persuade” Paris to pay up.  And despite the dismal prospects, Dev is considering taking the job.

 

    Partly it’s because Danielle Roxbury is one sexy-looking lady.  But more importantly, she’s just peeled off ten one-hundred-dollar bills and handed them over to Dev as a retainer fee, and acts like it's pocket change for her.

 

What’s To Like...

    Ting-A-Ling is the seventh book in Mike Faricy’s Dev Haskell – Private Investigator series, which is up to 32 books now, the latest being Hit & Run, and which came out just a couple weeks ago.  It’s also the final installment in a 7-book bundle which I've used to read most of these books so far, and which seemingly isn’t available anymore at Amazon.

 

    There’s really only one plotline to follow: Dev’s efforts to get Renee Paris to pay back the money he owes Danielle.  But things get complicated by several key characters suddenly disappearing, as well as a case of vandalism-&-arson that the police are working on, and some embarrassing actions by Dev that were caught on a surveillance camera, much to his dismay.

 

    The books in this series are formulaic, and that’s not a criticism.  It means you’ll find the storytelling moves at a fast pace, there’s plenty of wit, sarcasm, and action, plus Dev spends a lot of time girl-watching, girl-wooing, and alcohol-consuming.  In short, this is an ideal beach read.

 

    I liked the character development in Ting-A-Ling.  Louie Laufen, who’s Dev’s attorney, pal, and office-mate, is becoming a more valuable asset with each book.  So is Heidi Bauer, one of Dev’s “friends with benefits”.  Even Dev’s strained relationship with Detective Norris Manning is beginning to thaw a bit; I think this is the first book in which Manning doesn’t try to arrest Dev for a crime.

 

    There are some great music references in the book, including nods to Bob Seger, Lady Gaga, Leonard Cohen, and Blondie.  Mike Faricy obviously has some good tastes in that regard.  The title is referenced several times, it’s just the sound of Dev’s phone ringing and it doesn’t play any major part of the story.  And for those keeping track, Dev wrecks one car (but it wasn’t his fault), has two rolls-in-the-hay, and frequents three places that serve booze, with “The Spot” being by far his favorite watering hole.

 

    The story is set in St. Paul, Minnesota in the dead of winter, and is told from the first-person point-of-view (Dev’s).  The chapters are short, with 57 of them covering just 285 pages.  Ting-A-Ling is both a standalone story and part of a series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  3.9/5 based on 279 ratings and 224 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.71/5 based on 552 ratings and 35 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Look, I gotta run.  I’ve got a luncheon meeting.  Hey, if you find my thong, it’s red, hang onto it for me.  I couldn’t find it, unless you did something typically stupid and crude, you perv.”

    “Actually, I think it’s down on West Seventh, right near to the stoplight at Grand Ave.”

    “What?”

    “Yeah, you said you felt imprisoned or something along those lines and you threw it out the window.  I can’t remember exactly.  It was just before your ‘impetuous love’ suggestion.”  (loc. 21513)

 

    “Didn’t they see you?”

    “That’s what I’m saying, they did see me.  They tried to run me down.  Tried to kill me.”

    “Kill you?  God, then you’re awfully damn lucky, Dev.”

    “Maybe.”

    “Any idea who?  Or why?  Was it someone’s husband?”

    “No to your first two questions, and I don’t think so to your third,” I said.  (loc. 23682)

 

Kindle Details…

    Ting-A-Ling is presently priced at $3.99 at Amazon, as are most of the other books in this series.  A couple of them are discounted to $0.99 for now, and you can get various subsets of these in 3-book bundles.  Mike Faricy has several other series (Hotshot, Corridor Man, and Jack Dillon Dublin Tales) in addition to the Dev Haskell misadventures.

 

“You’re sort of sweet, in your own warped little way.”  (loc. 22732)

    There are the usual nits to pick.  Ting-A-Ling has a moderate amount a cussing in the text, 16 instances in the first 20% of the story, which is one short of what the previous book had.

 

    And as always, typos abound, especially (but not limited to) abusing compound words such as newscast (“news cast”), hitman (“hit man”), footprints (“foot prints”), and even a childhood favorite of mine, Play-Doh (“Play Dough”).

 

    The most serious quibble, as pointed out by several Goodreads reviewers, is with the ending.  It includes an unbelievable escape from certain death by Dev, has some bad guys and good guys getting away, and the climactic confrontation leaves the reader the job of inferring what was going on in the whole debt-repayment plot thread.  After that, the book shuffles along for several more informational chapters tying up loose ends.

 

    6½ Stars.  The problematic ending notwithstanding, Ting-A-Ling is still a decent read if you’re looking for something witty, entertaining, and not very deep.  Just don’t make it your first Dev Haskell book.