Carom Shot is a solidly plotted traditional mystery with enough twists and reversals to appeal to puzzle-lovers. Algy Temple is the kind of fictional friend you’d want watching your back, whether in a dark alley, a boardroom or a courthouse. Carom Shot is a terrific debut that brings old Providence alive from the church steeples to the cracks between the cobblestones. Algy Temple is a wonderful addition to the ranks of sleuths.
J.J. Partridge’s distinguished career practicing law provides experience with Providence’s high times and lowlifes. An astute observer of academia, politics, politicians and pool, his novels illuminate academic sensibilities and campus foibles, political turf wars and ethnic tensions, civic sleaziness, gaming’s relationship with Native Americans, and particularly the murky world of the sport of pool, both amateur and professional. Carom Shot and Straight Pool are the original titles in the Algy Temple mysteries; Scratched continues the series.