Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca?

This started with a bang. I was laughing the entire first chapter. A very interesting main character who had some very unlikely friends. And a young girl with a potty mouth. Anxious to see his next book!!!!!!!!1

A suicide jumper who lost a custody battle is 14 floors up ready to jump. Leo Waterman private Investigator tries to talk him in. "Leave me alone" Thomas Grear screams Leo Waterman says "Come on Grear you don't want to do this. This is no way for your son to remember his dad. Come on in here" Monica Grear the wife was brought in to help talk him inside. She leans out the window and yells "Jump you dumb F*** Go ahead you F***. Jump. You haven't got the balls, you never had any balls, go ahead jump you wimp. I got you insured to the teeth" Leo Waterman barrells into the room not hearing what else she yelled at her husband on the ledge. Leo put his hand over Monicas mouth and lifted her completely off the ground. She struggled and kicked her legs madly. She bit him, he yanked his hand away "Jump you son of a bit**" she bellowed before he could cover her mouth again. He yarder her into the hall and kicked the door shut. The beginning of this story was so fast and gripping it was incredible. Other authors should listen to the 1st half CD (20 pages) Wow Wow Wow. I'm so sick of books that after 100 pages they are still not interesting. This teaches other authors how to grab us readers and we are won over instantly. Mafia head man hires Leo Waterman to find his nymhomanic niece. The action scenes are very believable and the story complelling. I love the group of street alcoholic misfits he uses as his back up to do surveillance.

I have just finished reading the whole Leo Waterman series (as of 2003) and must say I enjoyed it greatly. "Wanda Fuca" is a great beginning to a great series.Having been born and raised in Seattle, but now living in Alaska, I did enjoy follwing the geography as PI Leo Waterman scoots around the Puget Sound region, sort of a nostalgic "old home week", but that was not what held my attention.What for me sets this book apart from the rest of the "hard boiled PI" genre are the characters that Ford gives us. The are fresh, memorable and we care about them. It would be easy to make Leo's "domestically challenged" team of drunks mere two-dimensional throw-aways, but Ford fleshes them out with humor, without being condescending, and a complexity that I had never considered for "bums". These are multi-leveled people with stories behind them. I found I really same to like "The Boys" and their addition as Waterman's helpers is one of the most compelling aspects to this novel, and to the series as a whole.If Ford's characters caught my attention, his writing style helped keep it. His action scenes are beleivable; his descriptions are terse, but evocative; and there is a self-depretiation that flows from Ford through Leo Waterman that I found both refreshing as well as compelling.

Leo Waterman and his cast of misfit street operatives are a riot. This is one of those mysteries that you can't put down for two reasons. First, the plot and mystery are intriguing. Second, you can't wait for the next bit of mayhem from the group of misfits Leo uses as his backup gang of assistants. The characters are well-drawn and the action is tense. You can't go wrong with this book.

I'm not a big fan of PI (private investigator) mysteries in general, but this one is definitely worth picking up even if you are a police procedural or cozy mystery reader. G. M. Ford is very good at describing the Seattle setting and Leo Waterman, the main character, is one I definitely want to reach more about. This book reminds me of of John D. MacDonald's books. If you like Travis McGee, you might want to try Leo Waterman.

I always said I was a Ford person, and I'll forgive G.M. Ford his conflicting name since his writing is some of the best I've seen wash in over the transom in several years. Leo Waterman is a refreshingly original detective who just about everyone with a firm grip on reality can relate to. When an old disreputable friend of Leo's father makes a request of him that he "can't refuse," Leo delves into the sometimes fanatical realm of environmental politics in search of Caroline Nobel, a spoiled little rich brat without a lick of sense bent on changing the world. With the help of "the Boys" -- a group of aging winos who are his modern day "Baker Street Irregulars" -- Leo fights Native American tribal politics, industrial polution, and psychotic grannies to fulfill his obligation to a friend. Ford's writing is entertaining, page-turning excitement, with humor and spice sprinkled throughout. If you don't chuckle, you're brain-dead. His writing is vaguely reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen's tongue-in-cheek humor. And yes, you do find out who Wanda Fuca is.