Death Sung Softly by David Archer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Death Sung Softly by David Archer is my third Sam Prichard Mystery. I've really liked them. This one I give four stars and recommend it.
It is the first novel I've read that I actually stopped and thought, "This is a musical". Keep in mind that I am reviewing both the ebook and the audiobook. The lyrics are in the ebook, and they sing them in the audiobook. There's also a link in the ebook so you can click the link, go to David Archer's website, and listen to the song reproduced there.
To give you an idea how unique this is, I read over 130 Doc Savage Adventure Novels before I reached my teens and my actual reading love leans more to science fiction than adventures. So there's at least 5 more decades of ambitious reading since and this is the first I thought…. "This book is a musical." I suppose that is a comment on our time and our technology than anything else.
In this mystery Sam Prichard formally opens his Private Investigator business. On his first day of advertisement he gets a missing person job. The fellow is a musician and the rest the musicians want to find their missing lead singer.
David Archer is an excellent professional writer. When I say that I mean he is not an "F list" Indie writer who can't afford cover art or an editor. His books are lean, fast, and full. You get attached to the characters and care what happens next. With David's particular writing voice, or Mikael Maramore's reading voice in the audiobook, Sam Prichard seems rather laid back, easy going and casual, all the while continuously moving toward the conclusion of the mystery he's investigating. Meanwhile, he is also growing in the personal relationships with those closest to him and his friends.
He's not so casual that he won't put the fear of law enforcement into someone's face without flinching. I do enjoy these books.
I've seen blurbs that say that Sam Prichard is the "next Jack Reacher". Who is blowing that smoke, or why is a mystery to me. There are similarities with Prichard and Reacher as they both solve injustices and both were military police officers at one point. There the similarities grow very thin.
Reacher is a hard nose military MP trained to bring in the worst of military rogues, like Navy Seals gone serial killer. A really tough guy, ready to take on criminals not having superpowers or being X-men mutants.
Prichard always wanted to be a local cop and joining the military for police training was just on the schedule to get where he wanted to go. His military police training didn't extend beyond standing guard and waving cars in and out of a military base. He did have a diverse and reputable ten-year police career before being shot and injured. The injury forced him from his beloved occupation with 100% police retirement. It was over a year of rehabilitation and it appears Sam's life will never be entirely free of a walking cane.
So far in the Prichard novels I've read he has become a Private Investigator quite by accident and run into his assistant, Indiana, in a similarly arbitrary way. Together they get their mysteries solved. But nothing like Jack Reacher novels I've read. Reacher is intense. Prichard's novels are more mentally challenging puzzle solving while building the character's lives in Prichard's circle.
Try a few of his books. They are quick reads and are relatively inexpensive. At least compared to Peter V. Brett's latest short story.
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