Review: Runaway Man by David Handler

A Mysterious Review of Runaway Man by David Handler. A Benji Golden Mystery.

Review summary: The murder mystery plot of this first in series is a fairly standard one, and it doesn't one long to figure out the whydunit despite numerous red herrings dropped along the way. It's the whodunit that is the intriguing element here. All in all, a solid start to this series, one that has a strong cast of characters in a middling murder mystery plot. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Runaway Man
David Handler
A Benji Golden Mystery
Minotaur Books (August 2013)

Publisher synopsis: Benji Golden works in his family's struggling mom-and-pop business above a twenty-four-hour diner on Broadway and West 103rd Street. Golden Legal Services, a private detective agency, was started by Benji's hero-cop father. The business is now run by Benji's mother, who used to be the only Jewish pole dancer in New York City, and is staffed by Lovely Rita, an eye-popping computer wizard and a former lap dancer.

Baby-faced Benji — who is exactly one-quarter inch shy of five-foot-six, weighs a buck thirty-seven, and answers to the nickname "Bunny" — specializes in tracking down teen runaways. One day, when a lawyer in fancy shoes arrives from Park Avenue's classiest law firm offering a job and lots of money, Benji and his mother can't say no.

Bruce Weiner is a senior at prestigious Canterbury College. A client of the firm has bestowed a considerable inheritance on Bruce, but Bruce has gone missing, and it's up to Benji to find him. One murder later, Benji finds himself on a dangerous investigation that will take him to the highly secretive core of the most powerful city on earth.