Hard-boiled detective fiction is not a genre I dip into often, but something about the description of Swann Dives In caught my attention. This is not your typical crime fiction, and the slow pace of the story managed to draw me in. Of course it helped that the investigation outlined in the story also involved books.
Henry Swann is retired from skip tracing and now works as a cable guy, an underappreciated job but one that keeps him out of trouble. When he’s offered a job to track down the missing daughter of a big shot lawyer, the money’s too good to turn down, so he comes out of retirement for just this one time. In order to find the missing woman, he first has to find her boyfriend, and finds himself immersed in the world of rare books and forgery. Swann also has some shady characters after him and he’s unsure if they’re related to the case or after something else.
Swann Dives In is actually the second book about Henry Swann, but this novel stands alone. There are some references to his past that would probably make sense to someone who read the first book, but they didn’t detract from my enjoyment of this one.
I enjoyed Swann Dives In and would recommend it to those who enjoy crime novels that don’t involve murder, kidnapping or other violent crimes, as well as classic literature.
Thanks so much for the kind review, Nancy.