Title: Night Drop
Series: A Pinx Video Mystery: Book One
Author: Marshall Thornton
Publisher: Self-Published/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 201 Pages
Category: Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: This novel had so many things going just right for it. I was fascinated by the tangled plot, the strange and quirky side characters, and the rather enigmatic hero we had in Noah.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: It’s 1992 and Los Angeles is burning. Noah Valentine, the owner of Pinx Video in Silver Lake, notices the fires have taken their toll on fellow shopkeeper Guy Peterson’s camera shop. After the riots end, he decides to stop by Guy’s to pick up his overdue videos, only to find Guy’s family dividing up his belongings. He died in the camera store fire—or did he? Noah and his charmingly meddlesome downstairs neighbors begin to suspect something else might have happened to Guy Peterson. Something truly sinister.
Review: Noah is not your typical private investigator, primarily because he’s not a PI at all—just a young business owner of a video rental store, with a nose for the mysterious and a penchant for not minding his own business. Set in the 1990s, during the notorious Rodney King Trial that set off a series of violent clashes between police and protesters, Night Drop is a classic mystery story with an unusual hero. Noah is pulled into what turns out to be a deadly setup when a fellow business owner goes missing and is presumed dead. The incident would probably never really have crossed Noah’s radar, if the shop itself was not in his neighborhood and, apparently, the only one that took a hit during the riots. Not only that but the shop owner, Guy Peterson, was someone Noah had dated once upon a disastrous time. Everything was just too much of a coincidence for Noah to ignore.
As he digs deeper, Noah stumbles upon a very alive Guy Peterson, and a blackmailing scheme that has gone bad. Then Guy turns up dead in Noah’s shop dumpster, and all hell breaks loose. Somehow, it all ties back to the police and an outreach program that is not at all what it appears to be. Now Noah isn’t sure who he can trust, and hopes he can figure out who really killed Guy Peterson before the killer comes after him.
Barring the fact that I remember 1992 very well, and that having it be the fodder for a historical novel was a bit weird, I have to say that I really enjoyed this mystery by author Marshall Thornton. Yes, it was a definite stretch to call Noah anything other than a busybody who had an unerringly good nose for ferreting out the truth, but that didn’t negate the fact that Noah was a fun and interesting character to read about. I enjoyed his strange relationship with his neighbors and his video store employees. I was desperate to learn more about the ex who had died, and who had obviously treated Noah rather cavalierly despite professing his love for him. I’d get into that a bit more, but the big reveal at the end of this novel precludes me from delving more deeply into their sidestory.
I was desperate for Noah to not only trust but give the go signal to the one cop who was trustworthy in this story. I can honestly tell you that I will read the next installment in this series just to learn more about Detective O’Shea, and watch him pursue Noah—’cause that horse is still in the race despite Noah’s reluctance to ever date anyone ever again. I also really liked the meddlesome couple, Louis and Marc, who barged in and out of Noah’s life, but also rather sweetly took care of him as only nosy neighbors can.
To be honest, this novel had so many things going just right for it. I am sure some may struggle with the fact that there is no sex whatsoever, but I wasn’t bothered by that in the slightest. I was fascinated by the tangled plot, the strange and quirky side characters, and the rather enigmatic hero we had in Noah. I truly found Night Drop to be loads of fun and a cracking good mystery all the way around. I will definitely be on the lookout for more in this new series by Marshall Thornton.
You can buy Night Drop here:
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The Novel Approach Reviews 
Looking forward to the next one, too.
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