Throwing Off Sparks (A Riley Reeves Mystery) by Michael Pool

Throwing Off Sparks (A Riley Reeves Mystery) Reviews

• 
  Kevintipple

  Throwing Off Sparks: A Riley Reeves Mystery by Michael Pool is the first book in what promises to be a highly entertaining series. There are numerous references to an earlier case which was the focus of the story, “Weathering The Storm,” in The Eyes of Texas: Private Eyes From The Panhandle To The Piney Woods anthology edited by Michael Bracken that came out last year. While it is not necessary to have read that short story before reading this novel, it would not hurt as those events still have personal repercussions in this novel set more than a year later.
  
  Most of Riley Reeves cases are missing persons and surveillance cases. Divorced and stubborn, she could have easily slid into police work following her legendary father. She is not good with rules so doing private investigator work is her thing as she goes about her life while her brother sits in prison. She works out of a small office building on the square of downtown Tyler that she inherited from her dad and lives in the family home after mom passed. There are wrinkles to both situations that add depth to character and setup conflicts best read instead of being detailed here.
  
  She needs a case as the bills are mounting. The man and woman who walk into her office that morning clearly have money. The wife also clearly has attitude, so she is going to be problematic. They have a problem and seem to want her help. At least the man does, but the wife is another thing.
  
  Paul and Lee Anne Wallace have a 17-year-old daughter, Carmen. Somebody started playing small pranks on her and things seem to have escalated to full on stalking behavior. Somebody is putting nasty notes on her car as well as occasionally vandalizing it. The same person is also apparently coming by in the middle of the night and tapping on her bedroom window. Other little things have been happening as well in recent weeks. Mom, Leanne, is sure it is a neighbor boy who has a bit of a reputation. Dad, Paul, is not so sure he is the one doing it. While they do not agree as to who is doing it, the parents are in agreement that they want and need it stopped.
  
  
  There is no evidence that the neighbor kid is the one doing it. In fact, there really is not much evidence of anything so the Sheriff’s department can’t really help. For any parent such a situation would be of concern, but their daughter has major life-threatening medical issues so that makes things worse.
  
  While Riley Reese is not sure she can really do anything that has not been tried already, she agrees to come look around the property and talk to their daughter. Once she does that, if she thinks she can help, they can all decide on a plan of action and other details.
  
  Before long, Reese has her hands full with their case and a host of other problems. Things get very complicated very fast in this fast pace mystery. Throwing Off Sparks: A Riley Reeves Mystery by Michael Pool is clearly a foundational book for the series. That means there is a lot of backstory to the various primary characters, especially Riley, so as to set up for the reader how she perceives her world and the people in it. That backstory provides nuance and depth to the characters and does not slow down the read at all because it is weaved in so well. If the coming series follows the precedent here, the series should be really good.
  
  
  
  
  I received an eBook ARC of this read awhile back from the author with no expectation of a review.
  
  
  Kevin R. Tipple ©2020
• 
  Jim Thomsen

  Reading THROWING OFF SPARKS made me realize that police procedurals and private-eye mysteries are mostly set in small towns or big cities — and rarely in mid-size cities. Why is that? One of appealing elements of this novel, the first in a planned series, is that it gives us a distinctive cultural window into the East Texas city of Tyler, population 107,441, a place I've been heretofore unaware of. It's one author Michael Pool clearly knows from lived-in experience, and it's a relief to get to know someplace new — as far as I know — in the crime-fiction genre after having read a zillion such novels set in New York, L.A., San Francisco, Miami and the like, or in the backwaters of Maine, Minnesota or Montana. Tyler has elements of both those extremes — racial strife and recognizable dining/drinking meccas, among other things, and a distinctive landscape that straddles the piney woods and the bare scrub that divides Texas.
  
  That said, THROWING OFF SPARKS came up short for me on most other levels. The two subplots, with some points of intersection, never felt fully coherent or plausible to me. Most of the characters seem like rushed-through character notes, with the exception of heroine Riley Reeves, an emotionally suffocated private eye with more tragic backstory than she can bear up under. Riley is constantly telling readers how she feels and how she interprets events, and almost are all obvious show-don't-tell details and dabs of color that readers would rather interpret for themselves. (Example: "I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that my own psychology was hopelessly tied up in the case now, too. I’d failed Carmen, and now no one would ever fail her again. Whether the Wallaces intended to employ me further or not, I had every intention of getting to the bottom of the matter. If nothing else, at least to try and put my conscience to rest.")
  
  As a result, the reader is prevented from emotionally engaging with the characters or the story to the extent that they might wish. Overall, THROWING OFF SPARKS is so soggy with exposition and authorial intrusion that it keeps the characters or story from coming to fully realized life. And that made the novel feel like a manuscript that might have benefitted from a few more rigorous rounds of developmental editing and revision.
  
  Michael Pool, a private eye himself, is a talented author — I am particularly a fan of his nimble, robust TEXAS TWO-STEP — and I expect better things from him ahead.
• 
  Randee Green

  When private investigator Riley Reeves is hired by an East Texas socialite family to help protect their teenage daughter from what they believe is a stalker, she assumes it will be an easy enough case that is barely worth her time. Instead, she finds herself dealing with a rebellious but very sick teenager, an overbearing mother, and drug-dealing, homicidal rednecks—none of whom want Riley meddling in their business. To make matters worse for Riley, her brother has just gotten out of prison and is back to his old ways of drinking and doing drugs. Between her brother and the case, Riley almost has more problems than she can handle.
  
  THROWING OFF SPARKS is full of twists and turns—some of which I predicted, and some of which came out of left field. It was hard to put the book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The novel can be very dark at time, and Riley isn’t always the most likable or sympathetic character. But she is a very strong character, and she’s the kind of woman who won’t back down until the case is complete. I look forward to the next novel in the series.
  
  Thanks to P.I. Tales for the ARC.
  
• 
  Chris Rhatigan

  I've enjoyed Pool's previous books and loved this one. Riley Reeves is definitely a PI to keep on your radar.
  
  While books centered around a criminal investigation can be on the slow side, that's definitely not the case here. This has plenty of action and high-octane thrills. At the same time, Pool pays close attention to developing his characters, their backstories, and the Texas setting. Highly recommended.
• 
  Garrett Lee

  A nice old fashioned mystery novel with humor and sadness
  
  Riley has both personal and professional delimna to deal with that almost get her and her friend killed by a tornado before solving the situation