Gone, No Forwarding

In this 3rd book in the DKA series, Dan Kearny Associates? very existence is threatened when Dan is served with papers accusing the company of fraud and, if found to be true, could see him lose his licence. DKA is a company of private investigators who specialise in car repossessions and chasing down skip traces. This time, they will be using their skills on their own company. The events surrounding the supposed fraud occurred over a year previously and all employees involved have since moved on: 1 has died and the others quit or were fired. In order to save their business, two of the investigators, Larry Ballard and Bart Heslip have to track down the former employees who may be able to provide the evidence that will prove DKA?s innocence.The story has two focal points running concurrently. The first is the hearing, which provides the drama and the second is on the investigation performed by Ballard and Heslip, which provides the action. The progress of the hearing is actually the stopwatch indicating how much time the DKA investigators have to find their potential witnesses. The DKA books provide all the necessary ingredients that fans of PI books would be looking for, but it is also enhanced by the fact that the agency is much larger than a 1 or 2 man business and so, there are plenty of opportunities for elaborate plans involving multiple players to be carried out.

Adam Espinosa arrives in San Francisco with a female companion on a flight from Mexico City. After emptying the contents of a safe deposit box, he is murdered. At the time of the killing Kathy Onoda is receiving a delinquent auto payment from Kasimir Pivarski at the DKA office.Dan Kearny is served a notice of complaint by the state licensing board regarding DKA's handling of the payment. Kathy Onoda dies unexpectedly of a massive blood clot leaving Kearny without a witness to the transaction. Kearny sends agents scurrying to find another witness in order to save his license.The license hearing threads its way throughout the book. Bart Heslip provides most of the heroics. GONE, NO FORWARDING is an entertaining mystery novel but not the very best of the successful DKA series.