Koko the Clown doesn’t appear in this opening salvo in a mystery series from Stuart M. Kaminsky, a short series following a “process server” named Lew Fonesca that was scribed a decade before Kaminsky died. My favorite series by Kaminsky is his light-hearted one featuring Toby Peters – ‘30s and ‘40s era detective to the stars. His Russian detective is interesting, but hasn’t captured my interest like the Abe Lieberman stories based on a hard-boiled Chicago cop. The Fonesca series, if Vengeance is any indication, allows Kaminsky to mix the grit of the Lieberman series without the procedural details. Fonesca isn’t a detective per se; he’s a “process server.” A former state attorney from Illinois, Fonesca sees a need to purge his nightmare reality of losing his beloved wife in an unsolved “hit and run” accident by solving problems for other people.As a protagonist, Fonesca is fascinating because he makes mistakes and he doesn’t carry a gun (at least, in this story). His involvement is more about emotion than procedure, personal preference than professionalism. In this mystery, he is hired to locate a missing wife by a presumably wealthy client but spends the bulk of his time working on a case regarding a runaway teen. Some of his mistakes are related to literally underestimating his suspect-opponents, but at least one is due to making an assumption about someone he is protecting. No, I’m not talking about the classic victim who turns out to be the architect of the situation or the classic backstab by the client. This is subtle, interesting, and, for me, unexpected twist where the motivation was right but the suspected perpetrator was wrong. I also like the fact that Fonesca is unable to perform the white knight role with regard to every aspect of both cases. In one, he appears to be potentially successful and in another, he appears to be something of a failure. I like that sophisticated mix. It rings true.Unlike many mystery protagonists, Lew Fonesca is an unhappy man. Though the books are set in a sunny locale (Sarasota, Florida), he walks about with a gray cloud like the average Chicago winter day over his head. Though he tries to throw in the occasional “smart mouth” comment, no one ever seems to understand his attempts at humor. Though he is in therapy, he still seems to want to punish himself. Though he solves mysteries, he doesn’t always bring the perpetrators into the justice system. He wants justice and closure, not legal machinations (in spite of or because of his legal background?).His supporting cast includes a country-music loving alcoholic widow, his therapist, the auto-didactic owner of the local Dairy Queen, a former client who provides potential firepower on occasion, and the obligatory police detective who likes him but doesn’t necessarily trust him. The latter could be in any detective series, but the rest are interesting and add dimensionality to the story (and presumably, stories). Together, they are able to stumble through the case (not in the sense of a comedic stumbling as in a Johnny English or Get Smart outcome, but in the sense of never being entirely sure-footed and often being a little off-balance). Vengeance isn’t afraid to deal with spouse abuse, child molestation, substance abuse, or any portion of the dark side of modern society. Instead, the emphasis seems to be on coping with such dark shadows. In the past, I’ve been far more likely to pony up to buy a Toby Peters mystery than any of the others from Kaminsky, but I won’t hesitate to finish this series and will continue to lament the fact that Kaminsky isn’t around to give us any more.
