Dying Embers: An Art Hardin Mystery

Grand Rapids' fast-talking and faster thinking PI, Art Hardin is on the job again and this time, things look good. It's a fairly easy case tracking down Anne Jones, one time college pal of mega wealthy industrialist, Scott Lambert. Art's quick success leads to another even more lucrative assignment from Mr. Lambert, and life looks very good indeed. Looks can be deceiving. With breathtaking speed, things turn dark and ugly. Anne turns up brutally murdered and it's almost dead certain that Lambert is the perpetrator...with our hero a probable accessory. Events and the evidence may cost Hardin a lot, including his career, his good name, his wife and family and his life. "Dying Embers" is author Robert Bailey's second Art Hardin Mystery and it's a guaranteed nail-biting page-turner. Bailey again demonstrates his uncanny ability to pull readers instantly into Hardin's world and to make them really care about its denizens. When one cannot decide if a pulse-pounding, can't-put-it-down novel is more character, plot or pure action driven, one must conclude that he/she has found an exceptional read from a master writer. Let's hear it for a third in the series soon!

When I finished Robert Bailey's first book Private Heat I couldn't wait to read this one. I wasn't disappointed. What a page turner. I would put it down and find myself worried about how Art Hardin could possibly get out of the "jam" of the day. Even though I had other things I needed to be doing I'd have to pick it up again to see how he could possibly find a way out of it. He'd get out of one jam and be into another. Everyone either wanted a piece of him or hated him. Even his wife! I knew I had to get to the end of the book or get nothing else done. Good Read! So exciting I found myself scanning ahead because I was worried about him. I know, it's just a story. But I got caught up in it. Try it. You won't be disappointed!

"People can be trusted to lie. They lie in the bedroom, the boardroom, and the courtroom. The biggest lies are told the loudest. The worst ones are the ones they whisper to themselves." (Page 9) In this intense sequel to his book "Private Heat" author Robert E. Bailey brings back Art Hardin and pushes him to the literal edge of losing it all. It begins when he is hired by Scott Lambert, a wealthy businessman about to take his company public on the back of some cutting edge technology, to find a certain person named Anne Jones. He knew her in college and was attracted to her and because of one thing or the other, he lost track of her. Hardin agrees with the provisions that Mr. Lambert does not get her address and that once found she has to make the first contact. Mr. Lambert agrees and then before he leaves their meeting, tells Art that the operative working undercover for Art's wife, Wendy, who runs an industrial security business, hasn't made contact in a week. Art agrees to pass on the message to his wife and begins the search for Anne Jones. Before long he finds the reclusive artist locked behind the gates in a nearby wealthy mansion almost as if she is the prisoner of a wealthy patron. Having found her, he thinks the case is solved but it is actually just the beginning of a rapidly escalating nightmare. Through as series of increasingly violent events, he is attacked professionally and personally again and again to the point that his marriage is threatened. He has become a target and should he accept the FBI's plan which might be the only way out, he just might die anyway. However, death might be preferable. This is one of those rare cases where the second book from an author is even better than the first. With the complexity of plot, it reminds me very favorably of an early Robert Ludlum where reality is nothing more than smoke and mirrors and the main character is a pawn in everyone else's game. Just when the situation is under control, or at least appears to be, the situation changes and violently morphs into something else. Having laid the groundwork in the first novel, this book also serves to bring more attention to the secondary characters in Art's life. Most notably his wife Wendy and his teenage sons, Danny and Ben. Not only does this case threaten the family's professional livelihood, it threatens their marriage. Having a husband arrested for some of the things Art is accused of, would make any wife question what she knows to be true about her husband and her marriage. The dynamic that flows between Wendy and her husband severs as a major secondary storyline in this novel and something I am sure will be pursued in the future. The same small criticism of the first book holds here as well regarding names and keeping track of the players. It should be noted that this book is significantly more complicated than the first, which was fairly complicated, which makes the naming issue more critical. Still, the criticism is minor and s

I enjoyed Bailey's previous novel, Private Heat, which was nominated for a Shamus award. This one is even better, with a tighter plot and even more humor. PI Art Hardin has a genius for one-liners. The humor drew me into the book, but it was the 3-D characters that kept me reading. These people--especially Art's wife and kids--are so real that you expect them to move in next door. The situations are equally believable. When a tied-up bad guy has a runny nose, Art Hardin holds a wad of tissues to his face and tells him to blow, then says, "Don't be embarrassed, I have three kids." The dust jacket says that Bailey was a licensed PI for 25 years, and it shows. This reads not so much like a novel as your coolest friend telling you real-world PI stories.

This book kept me reading right down to the last page. Art Hardin is a believable private eye -- he's middle-aged and married with three kids. No Tom Selleck or Pierce Brosnan type stuff here, unless you count perhaps his wit. His wry "comments" on the situations he gets into kept me laughing even as the mystery got more and more puzzling. He starts out a routine case that should be boring -- finding a widowed businessman's old college girlfriend. However, the young lady turns up dead shortly after Art locates her, and Art finds himself being followed. After his office is broken into and child porn is planted there for the police to find, our hero stands to lose his career and possibly even his wife.I found this book easier to follow than Bailey's first novel, plus Art's relationship with his wife gave the story a human touch for me. I highly recommend it. If you enjoy it as much as I did, do a search on Yahoo for the Art Hardin fan club, and we'll discuss the books!