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Welcome to Mysteries to Die For and this Toe Tag.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is normally a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Today is a bonus episode we call a Toe Tag. It is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, and thriller genre.

Today\\u2019s featured release is 25 to Life by John Lansing.

25 to Life was released from White Street Publishing and is promoted by Partners In Crime Tours and is available from AMAZON LINK and other book retailers.

TG Wolff Review

25 to Life is a PI Mystery and is also characterized as Noir Fiction and Crime Thriller. Jack Bertolino is back for his fifth case. A law student is dead. Her crime? Working on a Project for the Innocent case on behalf of Carl Forbes. What Gloria Millhouse finds? Well, it stinks. Before she can move on it, someone moves on her. Now Jack is on the case, looking for the scum behind the shiny badges of the LAPD SWAT team to find the answers.

Bottom line: 25 to Life is for you if you like classic hard-boiled PIs who punch first and ask questions later and do the dirty work that the good cops can\\u2019t.

Strengths of the story. The set-up is classic PI. A bright, talent law student is killed in a murder made to look like an accident. (I don\\u2019t consider this a spoiler b/c if it was an accident, there wouldn\\u2019t be a story.) She\\u2019s connected. Her father is a renowned attorney and political supporter who asked his friend the Los Angeles mayor for help. That help comes in the form of Jack Bertolino, former NYPD inspector turned private investigator. I really like this set-up because it gave Jack a legit reason to dive into the case and the backing to go places and ask the questions he needed to.

The pacing is excellent. At no point did my attention wander or did I get bored. I got a little anxious a few times, but that was a good thing.

This is Jack\\u2019s fifth case. I have not read the prior ones and this one stood solidly alone. Lansing did an excellent job of briefly providing any needed back story without providing a full page synopsis of the prior cases. It is obvious that Jack\\u2019s team were in the previous books as they were fully developed characters, comfortable in their own skin.

Where the story fell short of ideal. There wasn\\u2019t a place it fell short of ideal, per se. There were a few grammar typos, such as \\u201c in the wrong place, but those were minor and did not detract from the story.

While I thought the final confrontation with the Big Bad was excellent in terms of action and excitement, I did roll my eyes at the set up. It was the only time that I thought Jack acted out of character. He is brave and aggressive, yes, but he is smart, manipulating situations to put the odds in his favor. This time, he chose to run into hell carrying a water bottle. At least he put a vest on. This is obv my pet peeve. I bet most of you hard boiled PI lovers will love it just the way it is.

About John Lansing

johnlansing.com

John Lansing is the author of four thrillers featuring Jack Bertolino\\u2014The Devil\\u2019s Necktie, Blond Cargo, Dead Is Dead, and The Fourth Gunman\\u2014as well as the true-crime non-fiction book Good Cop Bad Money, written with former NYPD Inspector Glen Morisano. He has been a writer and supervising producer on Walker, Texas Ranger, the co-executive producer of the ABC series Scoundrels, and co-wrote two MOWs for CBS. The...'