Title: And Come Day’s End
Subtitle: A Michael McKaybees Mystery
Author: Gabriel F.W. Koch
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ASBN: B07JL6XV1V
Pages: 256
Genre: Fiction / Crime / Mystery
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Hollywood Book Review
Author Gabriel F.W. Koch successfully updates the classic hardboiled gumshoe genre with this novel of shady characters, shocking violence, and all manner of lawbreaking going on in New York and New Jersey. Written mostly in first-person narrative (as were the vintage Philip Marlowe tales from acknowledged master, Raymond Chandler), Koch’s hero’s sarcastic cynicism masks his inherent need to do the right thing. While he might bend, even occasionally break the letter of the law here and there, he’s committed to keeping promises, helping friends, and making sure criminals actually get what’s coming to them. In this tale of murder, mayhem, and various miscreants, he gets to do all of the aforementioned in spades.
A good friend of Private Investigator Michael McKaybees is shot and killed. Not only is McKaybees implicated, but so is his estranged father. As the body count begins to increase, McKaybees soon finds himself not only tailed by the police, but also by bad guys intent on having him join the recently departed. The detective soon finds himself multitasking as he tries to keep himself among the living, unravel the death of his friend, perhaps reignite a flamed-out relationship with his ex-lover, and resolve long-simmering issues with the father who gave him life, but little if anything else.
Koch is an author who has his priorities in order. First and foremost he’s constructed an intriguingly complex plot. From the beginning, he pulls readers in with intense scenes of suspense. Little by little he then provides just enough information to keep you guessing as to who’s pulling the strings and why. When the loose ends are eventually tied and revelations ensue, he still manages to add a surprise or two.
Koch’s character development is first-rate as well. Fascinating folk people the pages of his tale. Perhaps none more so that McKaybees’ mysterious father. Voluntarily removed from his son’s life for more than thirty years, the old man shows up in a rumpled suit, worn fedora, and a reputation that precedes him. His rep is one guy who finds force more expedient than discussion. It’s a rep that’s well earned.
Ross McDonald once said, “Raymond Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.” Koch doesn’t quite reach those heights in his descriptions of New York and its environs. But he does show an intimacy and knowledge of the city that infuses it with authenticity. Comparing any author of detective stories to Chandler is fraught with peril. But I must admit this novel did put me in mind of him—even before I realized that Koch had named McKaybees’ fictional father, Marlowe Black. Coincidence? Somehow I doubt it.