Dead Skip

DKA File #1

by Joe Gores

Dan Kearny Associates is a San Francisco private investigation firm employing some of the most memorable characters in mystery fiction. P.I. Bart Heslip, a former boxer, is in a coma after being brutally beaten. Now it's up to his coworkers at DKA to sift through his current cases to discover the culprit--before it's too late. Ties in with the Mysterious Press hardcover release of Gores' 32 Cadillacs, the next DKA novel. Previous publisher: Ballantine.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction

197 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Joe Gores (1931-2011) was the author of the acclaimed DKA series of street-level crime and detection, as well as the stunning suspense novels Dead Man and Menaced Assassin.

He served in the U.S. Army - writing biographies of generals at the Pentagon - was educated at the University of Notre Dame and Stanford, and spent twelve years as a San Francisco private investigator. The author of dozens of novels, screenplays, and television scripts, he won three Edgar Allan Poe Awards and Japan's Maltese Falcon Award.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When repo man Bart Heslip is found in a coma in a wrecked, repossessed Jaguar, his college, former cop Larry Ballard, can't shake the idea that someone staged the accident to cover something up. Armed with only his wits and Heslip's last two days worth of cases, Ballard goes up against a three day deadline to find a would-be killer.

I initially bought this because I knew it was a crossver with Richard Stark's The Plunder Squad. It proved to be a pretty read all on its own.

Dead Skip reads like an episode of The Wire if The Wire was about a bunch of private detectives working for Dan Kearny and Associates, a repo agency. Ballard runs all over San Fransciso and surrounding areas, running down any lead he can find, looking for the man who put Bart Heslip in a coma. Needless to say, it boils down to legwork and talking to people, not booze and broads.

The case was serpentine in its complexity and not easily solveable. The dead leads outnumbered the useful ones by 12 to 1. By the time Ballard finally got on the trail, I was as worn out as he was.

Kearny and Ballard were both fairly well drawn characters for a book of this type from the era when it was written. Kearny doggedly looking for his man reminded me of Matthew Scudder a bit. Kearny could have easily been a world-weary police chief in another life.

The crossover with Parker made me want to reread all the Richard Stark novels. Speaking of Stark, the writing reminded me of Ed McBain collaborating with Richard Stark, despite both of them being pseudonyms and not actual people.

Dead Skip was a fun read and not just because of the Parker crossover. I'll be looking for the subsequent DKA books. Four out of five stars.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book in the DKA File series.

Dan Kearny Associates is a San Francisco private investigation firm employing some memorable characters in mystery fiction. P.I. Bart Heslip, a former boxer, is in a coma after being brutally beaten. Now it's up to his coworkers at DKA to sift through his current cases to discover the culprit. After dropping off a car late at night Heslip is attacked from behind, put in a car, and rolled over the side of a hill, leaving him in a coma. While the police conclude that he was drink driving and lost control, his colleagues disagree. Heslip’s close friend, Ballard, sets himself the task of running down the attacker within 72 hours. He suspects it must be related to one of the many cases that Heslip was working on, but working out which one and then locating them is not going to be straightforward.

Gores (1931-2011) was a three-time Edgar Award winner. Gores died in a Marin County, California, hospital 50 years to the day after Dashiell Hammett died. Gores does for P.I.s what Ed McBain did for cops in his "87th Precinct" series, with the difference that McBain was never a cop where Gores was a P.I.

The Donald Westlake novel "Drowned Hopes" (1990), featuring caper-meister Dortmunder, shares an entire chapter in common with Gore's DKA novel 32 Cadillacs (1992).

[Linda Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Dan Kearny Associates is a private investigation firm in San Francisco. PI Bart Heslip has been charged with locating cars that need to be repossessed. Following a long hard day, he's headed back to the office to finish up the paperwork.

The next morning, Bart is found in a repossessed car that ran off the road. There's the odor of alcohol emanating from his shirt. He is rushed to the hospital, where the doctors are concerned that he may never wake up. The cops are listing this as a one-car accident.

Bart's colleagues and friends aren't buying this. For one, Bart would absolutely never drive a car that's been brought in. Two .. he only drinks a certain alcoholic beverage and then, only rarely. Three .. his head has been beaten in ... accident or not?

His fellow investigators start looking though all Bart's cases to discover who may have done this. There are plenty of suspects .. most of whom don't like Bart.

I've just learned more about repossessing cars than I ever thought possible. It's certainly not a job I would like. People can get very angry when someone tries to take their cars. There are plenty of cases to look at ... plenty of varying motives ... One by one, the cases are cleared until there are only two possible left.

There is constant movement which is nicely paced. More mysterious than suspenseful, this page turner kept me riveted and trying to pull a Perry Mason and identify whodunit.

DEAD SKIP was originally published in 1972, so all the modern means of detection are missing.... no cell phones, no DNA data bases, etc. Fair warning --- text contains some racial and cultural references of the era which may be offensive to some.

Many thanks to Dover Publications / Netgalley. I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first entry in Joe Gores' critically esteemed DKA series. "DKA" is an abbreviation of "Dan Kearney and Associates" ...they're skip tracers. You borrow money from a bank to underwrite your purchase of a vehicle and fail to repay that loan, DKA send out their skip tracers to retrieve your car.

These guys (and ladies) aren't private eyes. They're not legally allowed to carry a gun or other deadly weapon. They're not legally allowed to beat the blue Jesus out of mouthy types who call them filthy names. I might be wrong but I don't believe they're even allowed to strike back against an assailant who attacks them.

These are people who have to use their brains to work themselves out of hairy situations.

This novel was only the second novel Joe Gores ever wrote. He wrote at least 4 entries in the DKA series. He would go on to further success when he published the awesome novel, , later turned into one of the finest neo-noirs of the 1980s.

As a result of being only his 2nd novel, this one is a bit slow for the first half. Then it picks up and roars to an ending in the final third of the novel.

The plot hardly matters. One of DKA's finest skip tracers is brutally attacked and left in a coma. His best friend at DKA, Larry Ballard, convinces Kearney to allow him 48 hours to apprehend the culprit.

We get loads of suspects, lots of San Francisco and surrounding real estate (circa 1972) color, and we get a fairly detailed procedural. We also get a cameo by Richard Stark's Parker in a nice 3-4 page section. Incidentally, this same segment is retold from Parker's point of view in one of the 1st 16 Richard (Donald Westlake) Stark's Parker novels ( ?)

Fairly entertaining novel if a bit dated. I happen to be a huge fan of Joe Gores so I should have mentioned this is a reread. I read this over ten (at least… more like 20) years ago and had completely forgotten everything about it except for the Parker cameo.


Well, times had changed.

But the subjects hadn't. People still defrauded, defaulted, embezzled -money or goods or chattels. They cheated their employers or their wives, skipped out, dropped out of sight, just plain dropped out. Skid row or hippie commune, juice, pills, grass, acid, skin-popping or mainlining skag - the old-time cons had used a better name for the white stuff, shit.

It usually came down to money. Somebody wanted more than he had, or wanted what it could buy. Somebody else would spend some to get back his chattels, or his missing daughter or the embezzler who had nickel-and-dimed the books.

And you went after them- for money. You found them, most of them. Damned tough to stay out of the way of an agency like DKA if it really wanted you. You had to change your name, dye your hair, keep your kids out of school, quit your union or your profession, tear up credit cards, abandon your wife, not show up at your mother's funeral, run your car into a deep river, quit paying taxes, get off welfare.

Because every habit pattern was a doorway into your life, a doorway that the skip tracers and field agents with the right key could open. The right clue, he supposed, in the detective-story sense.


Joe Gores was heavily influenced by Dashiell Hammett as this novel shows. Not a bad influence.

[Larry Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

… Updated review below…. Now adding Final Notice, Book 2 in the DKA Files series by Joe Gores …

Dead Skip by Joe Gores, 1972
A DKA FILE NOVEL

“The 1969 Plymouth turned into Seventh Avenue from Fulton, away from Golden Gate Park. —It was midnight.
In midblock, the lone man behind the wheel saw a 1972 Mercury Montego hardtop parked … —“Yeah, man,” he said softly, “squatting right on the address.”
—From beneath the dash he unhinged a magnetic flashlight; from the glove box he took a hot wire, a ring of filed-down keys, and two oddly bent Stella hooks.
The Montego was locked.
“Hey, you! Get to hell away from that car!”
“I have a repossession order for your Mercury.”
[Argument and epitaphs [N-word] ensues, wife joining the discussion]
Before starting off with his tow, he wrote the date and a few scrawled notes to himself —these would form the raw data, later, for his typed report on the Willets assignment. —“SF-3 calling SF-6. Do you read me, Larry? -“How you doing man?” -“Not a thing.” The disgust -came through the mike- “Haven’t seen a car. You’re having a good night.”
“Got that Willets Merc on the tow bar right now.”
“I’ll be 10-8 at the office, cat,” said Heslip. —I got something funny on one of the files —I wanta ask what you think.” “10-4,” said Ballard. —
Sixteen of these mothers to write, take him damn near the rest of the night. That one case, —Maybe Larry would come up with an idea on it. He’d trained Ballard, two years ago; hell of a good man, had all the instincts. Except he go involved.
At 8:27 A.M. Larry Ballard parked his company Ford—His eye caught —Heslip’s Plymouth- same place as it had been the night before —when he had come in 1:25 and hadn’t been able to find Bart. —The Jaguar that Bart had picked up last night was gone.
—“What time did you see Bart last night?” —“he was already gone when I got here at one-twenty-five.”— Kearny was a hard-driving forty-four, a compact, blocky man with cop’s eyes, a massive jaw,and a slightly flattened and bent nose which helped mask thee cold shrewdness of his face. He had been a private investigator for over a quarter of a century, —founded DKA [Daniel Kearny Associates] almost ten years ago before. —“Bart’s in the hospital” —“He creamed that Jaguar.” —“He’s in a coma.”

The doc says the next 72 hours are critical to his survival chances, and any future mental capacity. Larry doesn’t think Brad was driving the Jag. It’s a set-up. There was that case, the “funny” one -Brad never got the chance to discuss with him. Dan Kearney tells Larry you got 72 hours to figure it out, to prove it, and to get the perp.

Author, Joe Gores spent twelve years as a private investigator in San Francisco… this as real as it gets.
As Ballard tries to piece it together, mis-steps, wrong turns, bad information and bad intentions, the clock ticking… there is grim determination, humor and stick-to-it aplenty. Building in intensity, thick as as the San Francisco fog… no spoilers, no ebook, but used books out there for sale… it’s worth a look.

One further mention before departing —chapter 18, a strange meetup. It doesn’t reveal the story, so I’ll share excerpts with you… —Parker (see Richard Stark)…

—“Kearny rang the bell. —Then the door opened, — He was wide and blocky, with flat square shoulders, a good half-head taller than Kearney’s five-nine. His hands were out of a foundry, his wrists roped with veins. His face was bony, as flat and hard as the shoulders… He didn’t say anything, he didn’t have to.
—Until Kearny spoke, …the face was totally unfamiliar. But something— programmed by quarter-century of investigations to indelibly retain detail, —had recognized those hands, the ears set flat to the square skull, the black hair the voice (“No.”. —-a single night ten years before. — “Parker”. “What did you call me?” “Parker.” “You’re making a mistake.” Whether the mistake was in the name, or in using the name wasn’t clear. “It was Parker in 1962. You’ve gotten a new face —but the rest is the same. —A woman from Fresno —a two-day shack-up… —my wife’s sister. I stayed at the house the second night. We killed a bottle between us.” —Parker decided. “Sharon.” — “He wants Odum. Tell him.” Parker made an impatient movement with one hand. Her eyes tried to meet the onyx ones, couldn’t. “1684 Galindo Street.” Parker looked at Kearny. “Try again.” —the atmosphere changed —as though… like an oncoming storm. “Once more,” —“Well, uh—“ Maybe— uh, Howie’s girl friend over in Antioch.” … ah, 1-9-0-2 Gavallo Road.” —“Good.” —Parker turned to Kearny. “I’d hate to think you memorized those car plates.” “What cars?” Said Kearny. Getting into the car, Kearny realized that the back of his neck ached. Tension. But what the hell, he had Odum’s ass nailed to the wall. Thanks to Parker. “

FINAL NOTICE by Joe Gores, 1974
—A DKA FILE NOVEL, Mysterious Press
(Warner Bros mass mkt used pbk reprint in good condition, Thrift Books.)

“She was a willowy girl wearing a skirt that was too sort. —
“I represent California Citizens Bank, Mrs. Schilling, and—“
“I don’t know anything about it and I don’t want to know anything about it,”
she snapped. “Your name is the contract.” “I don’t care whose name is on what,
I told the other man from your company that the Bastard has the car.” —“Get out of here. Leave me alone.” —Ballard had just gotten the case on the 1972 Duster that day, because the man assigned to it had been unable to do anything with Mrs. Schilling. “ “I hope you remember I gave you a chance —when she the bank socks you with a grand theft warrant.” —It was a trick he learned from Dan Kearny. Make them come to you… “Can they do that?” An unexpected flush came over her cheeks. The Bastard is sleeping with some … some spade chick.” —suddenly eager to cooperate. “She lives down south of Market— …South something.” “South Park?” “That’s it!”

“Driving slowly around the one-way oval of South Park Avenue… —But no Duster. Ballard pulled into the yellow zone — in front of his Plymouth was an immensely bight, 1973 Cadillac convertible— Fire engine red. License 333 FFX. —Something flickered in the back of Ballard’s mind. — …Skip list? —grabbed the Mike… —“Kathy, will you check O’B’s In box and tell me if he’s got an assignment on a 3-3-3-F-F-X?” “Checking Larry” —“That’s 3-3-3-F-F-X, a seventh-three Cad convert. Instructions… REPOSSESS ON SIGHT!” —Goddamn, he had it! …” [as well as] “Interlarded between the four-color pages were crisp new hundred-dollar bills.”

From the blurb… “The bank gave Chandra the dancer her final notice; Daniel Kearny Associates took her red Caddy, and then the trouble started. —the DKA men found five crisp $100 bills. Suddenly the bank wanted to give the Caddy back, and Dan Kearny smelled a crime. —And at the end of the trail waited an underworld shark with a deadly grin—”

Kearny. “Chandra. A damned odd one even to someone like him who’d started knocking off cars for old man Walter’s down in L.A. as a teenager, five bucks a repo and pay your own transportation. Kearny had ridden out on a bicycle to grab his first hot car. Worked up to general manager of Walters’ Auto Detectives after the war, quit in 1964 to start Daniel Kearny Associates.”

“Schilling ought to park that Duster in South Park after the bars close,” said Ballard, just to be moving his mouth. He shot a look at Heslip, so cool behind the wheel. Maybe forty pro fights taught you how to mask it all, so the other cat in the ring with you would never know what was going on in your head.”

Flip to Chapter 14, DKA flips Flip out. “Philip Fazzino to see Daniel Kearny.” Fazzino, as Larry had said, was indeed handsome in an almost sculpted way. —Only his eyes were jarring: pellets of lead, with absolutely no depths. “I understand this place used to be a whorehouse.” He kept those flat eyes fixed on her face. “Why don’t you drop your panties, slut, so I can see what you’re selling?” Giselle laughed aloud.”Why that’s perfect, Mr. Fazzino! George Raft? Ah… no, no I have it. Jimmy Cagney! Ah… no! Mickey Rooney doing Andy Hardy!” —Fazzino’s face turned to stone.He walked rapidly down the hall… Giselle started trembling. Her face was burning. For the first time she realized the sort of control field men had to have when they were being baited. “He’s on his way,” she choked into the intercom. “Have Bart come in too, Giselle.”

Fazzino ignored Kearny’s outstretched hand. “Did you wish to hire the services of our firm?” — “I want you off my back.” —“anyone can investigate anyone he wishes, Mr. Fazzino. Ah! Mr. Heslip! Come in! I want you to meet—“ “I don’t like niggers,” —Give him a plate of ribs and get him out of here.” —Heslip was lounged against the aluminum doorframe, his hands in his pockets and his eyes rolled up to the ceiling. “Yassuh boss,” —“Go se me some mo’ dem’ mo’on pichurs. Seen one yist’day, li’l ol’ gal name of Wendy Austin was ballin’ dis hear big black stud, and dat stud…” Fazzino was one his feet, his eyes scummy with rage. —lunged forward, hands outstretched to seize the front of his shirt. With incredible speed, Heslip slipped back from his grasp. Heslip’s right hand came out of his pocket. His forefinger, slowly became rigid as the arm straightened, pointed at Frazino’s stomach. In some odd way it was as menacing as an open switchblade. The tip of the finger began making a tight circle. “Open honky,” he said softly. “You mess wid me, man, dat’s all-l-l gonna be openin dere.” Then his mouth gaped idiotically. “Ah saw dat mo’on pichur, Ah mos, surely did. Dey was show in’ it down at de Vice Squad. Dey call it a trainin’ fillum on how to rec’nize hookers.” —cold fury in his eyes. “You’re dead,” —“You’re both dead.” He went by Heslip and was gone, —“Keep on him,” snapped Kearny. Then, as Heslip started out, he added, “Don’t follow him up any dead-end alleys, Bart.” Heslip’s black face broke into a grin. “Yassuh, boss.” —They were well and truly in to it now, thought Heslip.”

DKA. —Sure are, and you should be too. Love the ‘70’s direct in your face with the race, sex and life on the mean streets….

— Mysterious Press. The Timeline of Penzler and The Mysterious Press:
1975: Penzler founded The Mysterious Press to elevate mystery fiction and release limited, signed, slipcased editions.
1989: The press was successfully sold to Warner Books (which later became part of Time Warner and then Hachette). Penzler shifted his focus to other publishing imprints like Otto Penzler Books.
2009–2010: Penzler reacquired the rights and the name to The Mysterious Press, officially bringing the brand back under his control.
Otto Penzler’s response to my query on Mysterious Press publishing Joe Gore backlist titles in ebook format, he indicated the agent had changed hands, but that he was interested in making new contact to accomplish that goal. 🤞🤞

[Daniel Sevitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice 70s noir with repo men chasing around San Francisco to find out why one of their colleagues was beaten into a coma. Not content with merely name-dropping Richard Stark early on, the book goes on to feature a whole scene with Parker in it, which may be an exact reflection of the same scene in Plunder Squad, but I can't be bothered to dig it out and check. If I find more of these old-time paperbacks I might pick them up.

[John Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent PI procedural, with the DKA repo gang out to solve the mystery of an assault on one of their own. Great repo man action, excellent early '70s Bay Area background (even daring to leave SF proper for seldom-visited East Bay locales; Concord, anyone?), and not one but two Richard Stark/Parker references for the in crowd. Recommended

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool tie in to Richard Stark's Plunder Squad

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read this book again, after turning it up for a quarter at the library sale. It was well worth the quarter & well worth the re-read. It's a DKA novel -- Daniel Kearney Associates -- wherein one of their agents is assaulted and left for dead in the middle of the night. This is the story of the rest of the crew trying to find out what happened.

Several things make this a really interesting read in 2011. First, it's a non-romantic portrait of the city at the time. Gores' locations are really there, and are not their for any purpose except to show where things happened. He isn't commenting on anything but the action, and this way he seems to me to show a very good portrait of the city.

The book, in its detail of a relatively boring type of detective work -- repossessing cars -- also isn't romanticized, but shows what seems to be a real way of working. Interesting to think of how the world has changed since 1972, and how this work must have changed. No computers, no cell phones. Young people reading this today must be confused at all the talk of carbon copies and the like.

But what makes the book worth reading is the low-key characterizations of the DKA crew and the portrait of the city.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of a procedural is pretty well established at this point, particularly with police stories. Show how the work is done step by step on the job, detailing how a case is unfolded and what is done to solve the crime. Show the paperwork, the interviews, the process that is followed.

Dead Skip is a private detective procedural. Focusing on reposession of automobiles, this case is mostly internal: one of the Dan Kearny Associates detectives is attacked and beaten into a coma while doing his job. Why did it happen? What did he mean when he left a message that something was bothering him about one of the cars he repo'd?

The case is followed step by step, each interview, each document, all the paperwork and procedure of the agency, each of its members and how they interact, and why the boss is the boss and better than all of them.

Wrapped through this is a fascinating snapshot of San Francisco culture circa 1972 with racism and sexism being dealt with along with the oddities of people living there and the remnants of the old city.

Gores is a master at the craft of the detective novel and this the first in his DKA series is a home run.

[Sam Reaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe Gores was a private eye in real life, and this early novel is a good account of a San Francisco P.I.'s life. As you might expect, it's a long way from Spade and Archer. The plot involves a firm that specializes in car repos and skip chasing; when one of their operatives is beaten into a coma by an unknown assailant after remarking to a colleague that he's found something funny about one of his cases, the colleague refuses to leave it to the cops. The hunt involves lots of driving around the Bay Area and lots of the kind of patient legwork (and paperwork) that characterizes the business in real life. This is a P.I. procedural with none of the old P.I. cliches (the bottle in the desk drawer, the non-stop wisecracks, etc.). High marks for realism, possibly a few points off if you're looking for Chinatown-level drama. But a good solid read.

[Aaron Martz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The details about the everyday life of a bounty hunter and repo man are fascinating, but the rest of this book is sub-par. There are an interesting array of characters, and it's possible other books in the series are better than this one, but the plot of this one is thin and drawn-out, and the ending is a talkative mess. Gores tries for a McBain style terseness, and sometimes he succeeds, but the rest of the time it's obvious, almost amateurish, imitation.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book -- tight, engaging, and a great period piece of the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s. I wrote a blog entry about it: http://douglevin.blogspot.com/2011/08...

[Jane Mackay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in Gores' DKA File series. I'm now a Joe Gores fan. With a degree from Stanford, he became a private investigator (repo man) in SF because of his idolization of Hammett. He does not let his idol down.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool early-70s "hardboiled" mystery, set in the San Francisco area and including a lot of references to the city in that time period. There's some writing here that was fine in the 70s, that really doesn't age well - use of the n-word, descriptions of women (and male characters' actions toward them) - but overall a well-written whodunit.

A great little Easter egg is that the book includes a scene where Dan Kearney, the head of the DKA private eye firm, interviews a guy who is clearly planning some sort of heist - Richard Stark's (Donald Westlake's) Parker. Westlake writes the same encounter, from Parker's point of view, in his Stark novel Plunder Squad.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. Dead boring. I read this only because it shared a chapter with the Parker novel Plunder Squad. And that chapter is the only interesting thing in this novel. It’s exactly as advertised: the very same incident from the perspective of Kearny rather than Parker. The rest of the novel is a dull detective procedural involving a repo firm investigating an employee’s assault. I felt no compelling interest in the crime, the characters, the plot, or the investigation beyond the brief connection with the world of Parker in one chapter.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, yet bland. The only real draw is the 1970's flavor. Has a fun Richard Stark reference. The lead detective on the job is nothing if not average and boring. I think that other books by Gores might be a bit more interesting, still willing to give him another chance.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

lf you want the feel of a Hammett tale written in the early '70's, pick up copy of the DNA files. With a wonderful sense of place in ,70's San Francisco, lean and direct prose. This is a classic PI/Crime novel.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun mystery novel. The detective is a repo man and the suspects are all repos. Good characters, and a cameo by Richard Stark's Parker!

[Lucy Leigh J · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ short & sweet skip tracing tale written noir style.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable little hard boiled procedural. Tight prose (Gores was an admirer of Hammett, and it shows), taught pacing, with evocative descriptions of San Francisco and the East Bay suburbs. I didn't take the time to look up the actual addresses on Google street view, but for the most part Gores uses real place names (unlike "Bay City" for Santa Monica ala Chandler or "Santa Teresa" for Santa Barbara ala Macdonald). Some of Gores' references to urban decay or attempts at portraying black American vernacular read pretty dated now (book was written in 1972), but this is a relatively minor complaint.

Most uniquely, Gores protagonists are a team of investigators, rather than your typical loner hard boiled P.I. That's kind of refreshing - the various employees at DKA form an ad hoc family, and pull together to defend one of their own. This is the first in a series, and I look forward to reading more.

[Steve Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Loosely linked crossover novel with Richard Stark's novel Plunder Squad *

Dead is a fun, fast-moving and P.I.-gritty novel that features the East Bay and San Francisco area, written with feels-like-you're-there detailed effectiveness. Good book for a lazy autumn afternoon read, worth owning. Followed by the next DKA File novel Final Notice.


(This review originally appeared on the Reading & Writing By Pub Light site.)

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

DEAD SKIP - Good
Gores, Joe - 1st in DKA File series

Dan Kearny Associates is a San Francisco private investigation firm employing some of the most memorable characters in mystery fiction. P.I. Bart Heslip, a former boxer, is in a coma after being brutally beaten. Now it's up to his coworkers at DKA to sift through his current cases to discover the culprit--before it's too late.

Good, but not great.

[Steven jb · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fair detective story. It started out okay, but except for Kearny, the characterizations were not satisfactory. The story seemed plausible but felt too sketchy at times. The writing was fair as was the ending.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book, the first in the DKA series. Thought I'd start with the first of this series by Joe Gores...establishes who's who before reading others in the series.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent repo man mystery - first in the series.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great descriptions of San Francisco Bay Area and clever investigations. Recommended.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. First in a series about a San Francisco agency who repossess cars. I assume the characters continue on.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead Skip, first published in 1972, was the first book in the Dan Kearny Associates series that charted the work of a private investigation company in San Francisco. Gores worked as a PI for twelve years and his knowledge of how to track down people and property is evident in the story. In this case an employee of DKA is attacked and left in coma, the crime crudely faked as a road traffic accident. A young investigator, Ballard, hunts for the killer, aided by Kearny himself. The strength of the book is in the procedural elements and the pacing. Gores keeps the prose tight and focused on the action. The result is a story that moves along at a fair clip, but somewhat at the expense of characterisation, which is mainly inferred from behaviour and dialogue. Moreover, there is little in the way of backstory – in many ways, the storytelling is like a television script. The plotting is nicely done, with Ballard unearthing new clues and chasing an elusive killer, though I wasn’t quite convinced by the denouement. That said, it was an enjoyable, quick read.