"Part Hardboiled Detection, Part Espionage, Part Underwater Adventure, Part Pulp"

LONG WAY DOWN.
By Paul Carr.
Epress-online, Inc.
2009. 286 pages.
For sale HERE.

Sam Mackenzie lives on his boat in a Miami Beach marina; he's never formally identified as a private investigator or a freelance spy, but he will become both of those during the course of this adventure. Also, as we quickly learn, most of the time Sam prefers operating just the other side of the law. Indeed, official law enforcement never gets involved with the proceedings; we're walking on the wild side here.

Nevertheless, Sam has a code of ethics that includes chivalry towards damsels in distress and sticking it to corrupt fat cats. So, when a beautiful woman is gravely wounded by a well-heeled crook, Sam practically has no choice but to get involved in what he will later characterize as "this mess."

Since one thing inevitably leads to another, it isn't long before Sam is neck-deep in trouble. There are moments when he isn't sure of anyone, not even the people he's trying to help or those he has enlisted to aid him. The fact that there's a treasure boodle worth over $100 million at the bottom of all this feverish activity could explain that.

The persons Sam will have to fight, trust, and/or mistrust include but are not limited to:

- Candi, beautiful yet distant
- Jack, a friend with too many secrets
- Carling, sexy but always portending trouble
- J.T., a computer whiz who never has enough money
- two ruthless "businessmen" who won't stop at murder
- a homicidal one-legged psycho in a wheelchair armed with a rocket launcher
- a squad of commandos with heavy accents and submachine guns
- and Prince Alfred, a stray dog that just loves to chew on bad guys.

In Long Way Down, Paul Carr resonates with other writers — Ian Fleming, Michael Shayne, Clive Cussler, John D. MacDonald — while producing a story uniquely his own: part hardboiled detection, part espionage, part underwater adventure, part pulp, which all add up to an entertaining story.

Note: Concerned parents would do well to screen this story for younger readers. While there are scenes of violence and sex, it doesn't qualify as pornographic at all. Think of it as a James Bond-style adventure suitable for prime time network TV. Despite all the mayhem, there's no foul language to deal with.

Resources:
- There's more about Long Way Down and the author at Smashwords HERE and Keep Me in Suspense HERE.

Category: Crime and adventure fiction