As a long-time fan of Robert B. Parker's Spenser, Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone series -- full of smart, great characters, well-crafted dialogue, interesting plots, back stories and simply badass detective work -- I was pleased to find a new writer to add to my go-to list to read in Rob Leininger, author of the Mortimer Angel series. Gumshoe Rock is the fourth in a series of books starring one Mortimer "Mort" Angel, a former member of the much-despised IRS, now a private investigator in training for Maude "Ma" Clary, a petite Rottweiler of a master investigator out of Reno who runs Clary Investigations. Within the first few pages of this fun, well-written detective novel, we quickly learn about characters who were introduced in the prior three novels of the series, and we also learn more about Lucy Landry, Mort's gorgeous, feisty girlfriend.

While Mort and Lucy work on solving the murder of a much-hated, highly placed IRS agent, Ronald Soranden -- who quite literally lost his head one day, when his skull ended up ripping through Lucy's Mustang convertible rag-top -- they also work on a case connected to the murder of Soranden that seems to be unrelated, but quickly becomes perilous for Lucy and Mort. These two investigations indicate that danger is afoot, or perhaps, ahead for the characters.

Throughout Gumshoe Rock, Mort is aided in fighting off bad guys with his expertise, at least to his mind, in judo, assistance from Lucy, Ma and other characters both major and minor. Whilst Lucy and Mort work the Soranden head-scratcher, other crimes are abounding. Embezzlement, murders, blackmail, wisecracks and allusions to Lucy's seeming youth resound throughout. Despite being the fourth in a series, Gumshoe Rock is a good stand-alone novel, and it made me want to seek out the previous three to get more of the details on Mort and the gang. In Rob Leininger, and the Mortimer Angel series, one can find a new private investigator for the discerning reader of detective/thriller fiction.