More Sinned Against – Dave White

I recently finished Dave White's More Sinned Against, which is a collection of short stories starring Jackson Donne, a formerly drug addicted Private Detective/ex-cop working in New Jersey. Once again, I found out about this Kindle gem on Twitter. I paid $0.99 and read it mostly on my Kindle, but a little bit on my iPad when I didn't want to wake up my wife sleeping in bed.

This is a collection of short stories that tells the story of Jackson Donne. He goes on to star in two novels, When One Man Dies, and The Evil That Men Do. I haven't read either of those novels yet, but based on this short story collection, I probably will. The book consists of seven short stories and an introduction by Ray Banks, which is quite complementary. The book then gets a quick start with “God Bless the Child,” which is a story of assumed, but mistaken guilt of a party abusing a child. The story then goes on to give you a glimpse into Donne's old life as a cop. The story moves quickly and has some great character development for Donne.

The rest of the short stories continue to develop Donne's character and introduce his friends, which I imagine will come in handy in the future novels. The real standout story is the Derringer Award-winning story “Closure.” It was written about a year after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. It tells the story of a man named Omar Hassan being extorted for money to get information about his wife, who is missing after the September 11 attacks. Donne follows him to the money dropoff and some crazy things happen. It is a powerful story that makes you think, and I imagine it had an even greater impact when it was first published.

The character kind of reminds me of Matthew Scudder (in a good way), in that he is dealing with issues of past drug use while trying to keep things together and help people. The drug use doesn't play as much of a role in his day to day thoughts, but I definitely thought of him immediately.

My main distraction in the novel was Donne referring to “clicking the safety off” on his Glock, which you really can't do. It doesn't have a safety that operates like that. I think sometimes authors fall in love with the Glock because it has a cool name, but haven't really fired one. Spend some time at the range, and you won't forget. If you want a cool sounding gun with a safety, I would suggest the Beretta or Sig/Sauer.

This is a great value at 0.99, and I look forward to reading When One Man Dies and The Evil That Men Do. His most recent novel is available for 0.99 as well, and it is titled Witness to Death.

I'm currently wrapped up in some vintage crime, Sunset Express by Robert Crais. Elvis Cole rocks! It only took me about two months to get it from the library!