Where the Bones Lie - Nick Kolakowski - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Nick Kolakowski

GENRE: Contemporary Mystery.

PUBLICATION DATE: March 11, 2025

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A detective thriller based in Hollywood-land California. Set in contemporary time but feels like a classic crime fiction. Strong characters, some good twists, and witty humour. A bit too convenient and farfetched at times, but the final section elevates the overall experience.

Plot Preview:

Modern-day Los Angeles. Dash Fuller spent many years working for a Hollywood “fixer”. Anytime celebrities get into a mess, Dash and his boss Manny were the ones they call to clean the slate. But after one messy incident, Dash decided to call it quits. Now, he spends his time either attempting stand-up comedy or downing a glass of bourbon.

Madeline is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler who vanished twenty years ago when she was just a child. A drying lakebed has revealed a barrel containing Ken’s skeleton, and Madeline wants to know who killed him. When Madeline approaches Dash to do this detective work for her, he sees it as a chance for redemption. But as the two of them venture into some elite LA territory, the last thing they expect is for the cold case to be not so cold.

The story comes to us in Dash’s first-person perspective.

While I do read a variety of books, there are some genres I haven’t touched in ages. One such category is private sleuth stories. So when this novel promised to reveal the darker underbelly of Hollywood, I was intrigued. Picking this was a reading gamble as many of the potential elements didn’t seem to be my cup of tea, but I do like to challenge myself. And thankfully, the gamble worked to a great extent.

Bookish Yays:

🎯 Madeline – a young woman with spunk and sass. Never lets the circumstances defeat her and approaches everything and everyone with unfiltered honesty. Loved her!

🎯 Dash – Not your typical cocky PI who considers himself the best at his job. Dash has his mental demons and also a sensitive side. He makes for an unusual sleuth with his imperfections.

🎯 Dash and Madeline have a mutually-respectful partnership, though he is obviously senior to her in age and experience. I like how he doesn’t look down on her or patronize her, nor does she allow him to dictate every move but holds her own in a conversation.

🎯 Plenty of banter between Dash and Madeline, lending a fun quotient to many scenes even when the overall proceedings are serious.

🎯 No forced romance between the lead pair, and not even shoved-in comments about physical hotness and attraction and the like – much appreciated.

🎯 The writing approach – Sometimes, it feels like the book is paying homage to classic crime noir, and sometimes, it seems more like a PI parody. Either way, it’s fun if you just go with the flow.

🎯 The details about the “fixing”. Makes me wonder how many such fixers might be actually there in Hollywood, hiding murky truths about our favourite stars! 👀

🎯 The setting – Nicely used in the plot. Though LA and Hollywood are part of the background, the story focusses not on the glam side but on the dirty underbelly of moviedom and gangland.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🔎 Though fast-paced in general, the actual storyline takes a while to get going. The initial 20% is about another unrelated case being handled by Dash. Even once Madeline comes into the picture, the writing still takes a while to deliver adrenaline rushes.

🔎 While there is some solid high-octane action in the book, it appears only sporadically. Some of the action sequences get resolved too soon, and a major chunk is present only in the last quarter of the book.

🔎 The final section – I did see a part of the twist coming but the extent of the twist was a surprise to me. The ending is overall quite good, with many surprises and plenty of action, and only a decent-sized infodump confession. However, one of the reveals was somewhat unconvincing and hence disappointing.

⚠ Not exactly a bookish issue, but I was surprised to see references to climate change and forest fires popping up regularly throughout the plot. In fact, the fires are mentioned quite casually, as if they are now a normal part of LA life. (Hope this is not the case! 😥) I realise that this novel was written well before the destructive January 2025 wildfires in LA, but this fire-related content might be a bit triggering to a few readers.

Bookish Nays:

💥 I wish the ages of the main characters were clarified. Madeline seems to be in her early twenties, but Dash’s age is not revealed at all. Knowing a character’s age helps us in understanding and anticipating their behaviour better.

💥 Too coincidental at times! Dash and Madeline seem to have more than their fair share of luck, because even when they are reckless and impulsive, they end up in minimal danger and they get out of it equally fast.. Basically, this has many of the convenient plotting methods of contemporary thrillers, which does not seem to bother most thriller fans but keeps me away from the genre. Golden rule: Don’t overthink while reading. (This reminder is more for myself; I keep forgetting it!)

💥 While the ending has surprises, the rest of the plot has no red herrings or multiple suspects to pick from. The story seems surprisingly straightforward in that respect. I would have liked to challenge my brain cells more throughout the story.

All in all, though this wasn’t my kind of book and it did go a little too straightforward in the initial half for my liking, the main characters and the climax redeemed the book to a great extent.

The story in this novel is complete, but it looks like Dash might abandon his stand-up comedy for a new career. I hope he does, because comedy is clearly not his forte and he has the potential to be the lead PI of a series.

Recommended to those who enjoy darkly comic sleuth stories with an imperfect PI at the helm.

My thanks to author Nick Kolakowski and Datura Books for providing the DRC of “Where the Bones Lie” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.