cover image Write Me a Letter

Write Me a Letter

David M. Pierce. Mysterious Press, $18.95 (259pp) ISBN 978-0-89296-484-0

At the start of the fourth Vic Daniel novel, following Angels in Heaven , readers might wonder whether the hero-narrator is charmingly off the wall or just sophomoric. Further along, however, the former opinion is likely to prevail, bolstered by Pierce's talent for constructing solid plots. Daniel, a 67 PI in San Fernando Valley, is hired to find an aging Nazi in Northern California and another man fleeing an L.A. loan shark. Along the way, there are some surprises and some violence, including death; it's a great pleasure to watch Daniel outwit various good guys and bad 'uns. Best of all, though, is Daniel himself, with his botched quotations (``Press on, McDuff''), creative attributions (``but what's in a name, anyway, as Percy Bysshe once quipped'') and his simple silliness (`` `Voila,' I said. `That's French for something' ''). Readers will succumb either to Pierce's rock-solid plot construction or to Daniel's imperturbably sunny disposition. You have to love a hero who thinks his pink-and-blue Nash Metropolitan is a classic. (Nov.)