Heart Beat (Jimmy McSwain's early files, #2) by Adam Carpenter

[Ulysses]

Heart Beat (Jimmy McSwain’s Early Files, 2)
Adam Carpenter
JMS Books 2024
Four stars

Typically well written and intriguing, this short novel continues to paint images of Jimmy McSwain’s first years out of the police academy. At twenty-three, he’s still trying to become a private detective, mentored by an old-time pro.

This is an odd duck of a story: a murder you don’t know is a murder. But it also seems to be the beginning of Jimmy’s adult love-life, which involves some Irish eyes and twenty-something hormones.

It’s pretty low key, emotionally, but startlingly powerful in its cumulative effect. This is an unformed Jimmy McSwain, but someone we recognize in the fully mature man we find in the popular series Carpenter previously authored. His relationship with his mother and sister are still evolving, as is his sense of self. It’s an odd effect for someone who knows all of the earlier books. This is a kid who we only know as an adult. It’s Jimmy telling the reader who he was way back when. The damage has been done, and he is searching for his destiny.