TT26: 25 to Life

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For and this Toe Tag.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is normally a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Today is a bonus episode we call a Toe Tag. It is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, and thriller genre.Today’s featured release is 25 to Life by John Lansing. 25 to Life was released from White Street Publishing and is promoted by Partners In Crime Tours and is available from AMAZON LINK and other book retailers.TG Wolff Review25 to Life is a PI Mystery and is also characterized as Noir Fiction and Crime Thriller. Jack Bertolino is back for his fifth case. A law student is dead. Her crime? Working on a Project for the Innocent case on behalf of Carl Forbes. What Gloria Millhouse finds? Well, it stinks. Before she can move on it, someone moves on her. Now Jack is on the case, looking for the scum behind the shiny badges of the LAPD SWAT team to find the answers.Bottom line: 25 to Life is for you if you like classic hard-boiled PIs who punch first and ask questions later and do the dirty work that the good cops can’t.Strengths of the story. The set-up is classic PI. A bright, talent law student is killed in a murder made to look like an accident. (I don’t consider this a spoiler b/c if it was an accident, there wouldn’t be a story.) She’s connected. Her father is a renowned attorney and political supporter who asked his friend the Los Angeles mayor for help. That help comes in the form of Jack Bertolino, former NYPD inspector turned private investigator. I really like this set-up because it gave Jack a legit reason to dive into the case and the backing to go places and ask the questions he needed to.The pacing is excellent. At no point did my attention wander or did I get bored. I got a little anxious a few times, but that was a good thing.This is Jack’s fifth case. I have not read the prior ones and this one stood solidly alone. Lansing did an excellent job of briefly providing any needed back story without providing a full page synopsis of the prior cases. It is obvious that Jack’s team were in the previous books as they were fully developed characters, comfortable in their own skin.Where the story fell short of ideal. There wasn’t a place it fell short of ideal, per se. There were a few grammar typos, such as “ in the wrong place, but those were minor and did not detract from the story.While I thought the final confrontation with the Big Bad was excellent in terms of action and excitement, I did roll my eyes at the set up. It was the only time that I thought Jack acted out of character. He is brave and aggressive, yes, but he is smart, manipulating situations to put the odds in his favor. This time, he chose to run into hell carrying a water bottle. At least he put a vest on. This is obv my pet peeve. I bet most of you hard boiled PI lovers will love it just the way it is.About John Lansingjohnlansing.comJohn Lansing is the author of four thrillers featuring Jack Bertolino—The Devil’s Necktie, Blond Cargo, Dead Is Dead, and The Fourth Gunman—as well as the true-crime non-fiction book Good Cop Bad Money, written with former NYPD Inspector Glen Morisano. He has been a writer and supervising producer on Walker, Texas Ranger, the co-executive producer of the ABC series Scoundrels, and co-wrote two MOWs for CBS. The Devil’s Necktie is in development at Andria Litto’s Amuse Entertainment, with Barbara DeFina attached as a producer. A native of Long Island, John now resides in Los Angeles.Partners In Crime Tours represents a network of 300+ bloggers offering tailor-made virtual book tours and marketing options for crime, mystery and thriller writers from around the world. Founded in 2011, PICT offers virtual book tour services for authors at all stages of their career. PICT prides itself on its tailored packages for authors, with a personal touch from the tour coordinators. For more information, check out their website partnersincrimetours.comJoin us next week for our regular episode of Mysteries to Die For in Season 6, Things that Go Jack In The Night. It’s my turn at the plate with The Skewered Jackalope Caper, where the American mythological beast the jackalope is our featured jack.