She twisted in her seat to reach her shopping bags, from which she produced a black Gucci purse. She twitched a check from it and laid it on my desk. The check was blank and hopeful, like the women’s eyes.

There’s a lot to like in Alan Lee’s Mackenzie August novels. Their relentless optimism is perhaps the best part – these are no noirs; when Mack or his buddy Manny Rodriguez, US marshal, start feeling down, they do something about it – and they’re more likely to work out than get drunk. There’s a lot of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser here, without the creeping wokeness that spoiled that great series for me.

I like some of the books better than others, but I think Dirty Deals may be my favorite in the series to date.

Mack is visited  in his office by a group of wealthy, middle-aged ladies from a Baptist Sunday School in Lynchburg (Kentucky? Tennessee? I was never sure). By some obscure reasoning, she believes she can score heavily against her hated rivals in the Presbyterian Sunday School by hiring Mack to find the fugitive convict Caleb James. Caleb was convicted of murdering a Lynchburg police officer and crippling another while under the influence of crystal meth. But he managed to escape from a high security prison and has dropped out of sight.

Mack takes the case, discovering a story that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why was a cop killer only convicted of second degree murder? Why do the Lynchburg cops – even the retired one whom Caleb crippled – want the whole business forgotten? Why do the descriptions of the crime make so little logical sense? As is his wont, Mack will stray from the narrow confines of his job description, determined to figure out the real story and to see that true justice is done. Which will force a very difficult decision on him.

Dirty Deals was well plotted and moved right along. The mystery was engaging, and the solution involved a surprise I really didn’t see coming.

The best part, though, was a moment in a sub-plot when Mack’s wife Ronnie delivers an impassioned defense of marital fidelity that will have social conservatives standing up and cheering.

Great fun. Cautions for language. Recommended.