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| Palos Verdes Blue |
Genre: mystery
Private investigator Jack Liffey is hired to find Blue, a teenage girl missing in L.A. His investigation leads to some surprises, including a gang of rich teenage surfers, in Palos Verdes Blue, by John Shannon.
" Beatrice would have to pay in the end too, if her sister did. He stared at the classic feminist novels abandoned across her small desk - The Golden Notebook, Jane Eyre, and a couple of Anais Nins. There really are no survivors in a shattered family, he thought."p. 23
Though the plot outline of the connections between a missing teen, illegal immigrants, and a gang of wealthy young surfers defending their beach territory is a good one, the techniques for writing the novel prevented me from really getting into the book.
There are many points of view, different stories running at the same time, and the switching back and forth from third person to first person narrations had me a bit confused. I wish I could have gotten more involved in the characters, especially private eye Jack and his daughter Maeve.
As far as plot, the book does a good job overall of presenting the problems of the California scene, particularly of young people. Health, gang warfare, undocumented workers, teen sexuality, even California mudslides are covered in Palos Verdes Blue.
Book provided by the author/publisher, for my objective review.
