Book Review: Devil With A Gun by M.C. Grant

Devil With A Gun
A Dixie Flynn Mystery
M.C. Grant
Midnight Ink, October 2013
ISBN 978-0-7387-3499-6
Trade Paperback

Dixie Flynn is a journalist for a San Francisco newspaper. She’s known for getting the story, even if she has to bend a few rules and put herself in danger to do it. When the new boss demands she write a Father’s Day fluff piece, she rebels–not unusual–and picks up on a story of a father gone missing many years in the past. One daughter wants to know what happened to her father, whom she remembers fondly. A second daughter, thrown into a life of abuse and prostitution, blames the father and doesn’t care. Altogether, a Father’s Day story worthy of Dixie’s talents.

There’s another problem. The missing father has a connection to a notorious Russian mobster and he doesn’t take kindly to Dixie nosing around.

Dixie walks right into danger, although she’s not alone in her search for a good story. She’s a woman with a number of offbeat friends and allies, for instance, a bookie known as Eddie the Wolf; her drinking buddy Frank, a SFP detective; Benny, who keeps her in guns. But most valuable in this caper is Pinch, a jockey-sized hitman who’ll do anything to keep Dixie alive.

Lots of brutality in this one, but the violence is tempered with humor. Fast paced, twisty, the story will keep you turning pages. The bad guys, even the Russian mobster, are well-drawn and interesting in their own right. I might even call them quirky, a label generally reserved for the good guys.

Dixie is a great character. This is the first mystery featuring her I’ve read, but I hope there are many more in the works.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, April 2014.
Author of Three Seconds to Thunder.