Classic Noir Police Procedural: An Ace and a Pair

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NYPD Detective John Stone has the best arrest record in the 43rd precinct, but in the opinion of his supervisor, Captain Jennifer Cuevas, he’s a dinosaur who belongs to another age. Cuevas decides to kill two birds with one stone by consigning Stone and another out of favor detective she wants to get rid of, Carmen Dehan, to a newly created cold cases unit, investigating cases nobody in NYPD gives a damn about. But, Cuevas has no idea just how hot a cold case can get.

Spending the majority of your time reading self-published crime thriller books in the hopes of discovering a new great author as I do, means many wasted hours struggling through books with stereotypical cardboard characters, bad writing, and poor or nonexistent plots. But, occasionally you are rewarded when you stumble onto a rare hidden gem which is exactly the description that fits An Ace And A Pair by Blake Banner.

It surprises me that I'd never come across Blake Banner before reading this first book in his Dead Cold Mysteries series. After all, Blake is a USA TODAY and Amazon #1 bestselling author of another popular series. Frankly, I only read An Ace And  A Pair because I discovered it listed in the top 20 police procedurals on the Amazon Top 100 Free Kindle books list.

As a fanatical devotee of the books written by the classic noir greats like Hammet, Chandler, Macdonald, and Robert B. Parker, I'm very particular when it comes to what I expect from a novel in that genre. But, I was suitably impressed with Blake Banner's writing in this amazing crime thriller.

While accurate comparisons between Banner's protagonist NYPD Detective John Stone and Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch could be made, I found Stone to be more in the mold of Chandler's Marlowe. In fact, I found Banner's writing style delightfully similar to that of Raymond Chandler's. While Stone is a modern-day NYPD detective instead of a private eye and hails from the opposite coast, Stone and Chandler are quite similar characters.

The strength of the fully developed characters in An Ace And A Pair is but one facet of this excellent novel. There is not only a compelling plot that hooks the reader almost immediately but an interesting subplot that dovetails perfectly. The pacing is near perfect, making it difficult to put the book down. And, there are so many twists and turns, it is impossible to work out the ending until the very final pages of the book.

I recommend An Ace And A Pair to any serious fan of crime thriller books and rate it five out of five stars. This book is a pleasure to read, so much so that I've already downloaded the second book in the series. At the time of this writing, An Ace And A Pair is available free on Amazon, and that goes for everyone - no Kindle Unlimited subscription required. Do yourself a favor crime thriller fans and download this entertaining read today.