ACME Mystery Directory review 05/March/2006: Frankly "Murder by the Book" by Bob Liter is one of the best modern detective stories I have read in a long time. It manages to capture the hard boiled detective flavor without being either a parody or contrived. Murder by the Book is part of the Nick Bancroft series. Nick Bancroft is a former reporter who inherited a rundown detective agency from an uncle. Nick isn't really a detective by training and does not even have a PI license. He gets hired to look into the murder of a young woman who was found injected full of a date-rape drug. The investigation soon turns dangerous. Author Bob Liter has managed to combine many of the best aspects of both the hard boiled detective with the amateur sleuth into a believable whole which is no easy task. I liked the first person, wise cracking narration by by the Bancroft character - it was a real hark back to Chandler. Five out of five stars. Author Bob Liter gets on the short list for my buying more of his books in this series sooner rather than later. You can find Murder by the Book as an ebook at Fictionwise.

The following is a review posted at Amazon.com

"Murder by the Book" is comfort food for the reader, July 29, 2002
Reviewer: S.A. Gorden (see more about me) from Deer River, MN United States
'Murder by the Book' is the equivalent of comfort food for the reader of detective mysteries. It is the type of story you read with smoky jazz playing on your stereo and a snifter of brandy sitting on the table next to you. It is written in the wordy first person narrative that you would expect in a gumshoe story. It has all of the characters you look for, the police detective friend, the seedy dive with the fatherly owner/bartender, a handful of beautiful - possibly dangerous - dames, the mob, and a body with hints of sexual perversion. It is the classic story type that originated in the 1930's and has been reincarnated time and time again in TV/movies from Mike Hammer to the holodeck of Star Trek.

Nick Bancroft is/was an investigative reporter who inherited a detective agency with an attached apartment. He moves into the apartment on purpose and the agency by accident. He is a beer drinker, semi-pro bowler, a savior of a stray cat, and generally a good man who falls into the strangest situations. A street bum, B.J., stops Nick on the street and tells him that he found a naked dead woman in the stands at the high school football field with a book on her lap. The dead woman's book turns out to be a sex etiquette manual with pages marked. Nick tries not to get involved but things just seem to happen to him. Soon he is hired by the dead girl's father, flirting with the secretary downstairs, getting wasted with his bar owner friend, Otto, and dodging thugs from the Chicago mob. The only stability in his life is a stray cat that decides to adopt him.

Like macaroni and cheese, 'Murder by the Book' is a mystery reader's meal for when the latest nail-biting thriller or impossibly complex mystery is just too much. It is a story you reach for when all you want is a good yarn and a chair to relax in. The only drawback to the tale is a fuzziness near the end. But for most readers that shouldn't be a problem, the brandy snifter will be empty by then.

A Rainy Day Lover- It's a classic boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl story with the usual misunderstandings. It's still a good ebook to read nonetheless.

Melissa is running from an abusive ex-boyfriend and takes a job managing a run-down apartment complex that has seen better days. Jud is a typical hunk with rich parents who prefers to play instead of work. He agrees to restore an apartment complex and make it a place people will want to live. And he has to do it without any financial help from his parents.

This story takes twists and turns before arriving at its explosive end.