Book Reviews for E.C. Ayres

The Tony Lowell Mysteries:

“(Private Investigator) Tony Lowell defies cliché. ..just when you think he’s yet another 40-something investigator Ayres surprises you.” Miami Herald on Hour of the Manatee, winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Novel award.

Book One: HOUR of the MANATEE

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly:

“A weary and reclusive news photographer turned PI must delve into a quarter-century-old death for answers to a recent murder in this atmospheric mystery set on Florida's Gulf Coast. A dotty old woman is shot to death in a motel just as she is asking Tony Lowell to investigate the 1966 drowning of playboy heir Henry Hartley III. All he knows is that she was institutionalized after witnessing the death, which was ruled accidental. A visit from two FBI agents and hints of political scandal goad Lowell to stay on the case, which has been assigned to conservative detective sergeant Lena Bedrosian of the Manatee City Police Department. Lowell returns to the Hartley home in Palm Coast Harbor, an enclave of the wealthy where Lowell himself grew up as son of the local police chief. His probing leads to another murder, and he and Bedrosian must flee or become the next victims. Ayres’ protagonist, a burnt-out survivor of the ‘60s and ‘70s, of Vietnam and Watergate, is a properly alienated PI. His foil (but not his romantic interest), the defensive and determined Bedrosian, may be a little overdone, but nevertheless the two work together to a satisfying conclusion to this tale, which won the 1992 St. Martin’s/Private Eye Writers of America Best First PI Novel contest.”

From Booklist:

Tony Lowell is a former UPI photographer who took early retirement to Florida, where he spends his time kicking back, fixing boats, teaching photography, listening to 1960s music, and occasionally doing freelance detecting if the price is right. Then he gets a call from another retiree, Maureen Fitzgerald, who swears she's got the inside, eyewitness scoop on the death, years before, of one Henry Hartley, a filthy rich playboy. Fitzgerald claims it was murder and says she was "taken away" so she couldn't identify the killer. Before Lowell can question her further, she's shot to death, leaving our hero to avenge her murder by ferreting out the true story behind Hartley's death. Ayres writes entertainingly about the idle rich and the sleazy methods they use in the race for power, money, and fame. There are no surprises here--we've read it all in the tabloids--but Lowell is an appealing renegade who enjoys bucking the system, and there's always a vicarious thrill in watching the rich get caught. Emily Melton

From Kirkus Reviews:

Socialite Henry Hartley III's former domestic Maureen Fitzgerald, who's been certified for 25 years, barely has time to tell Gulf Coast photographer/p.i. Tony Lowell, another refugee from the Sixties, that Hartley's drowning death was no accident before she becomes a murder victim herself. It looks as if Tony's soft-shoe detective style is no match for the heavy hitters that Maureen's cryptic tale has implicated--Hartley's young widow Julie, his ravaged mother Lucretia (who went broke paying out a slander settlement after she accused Julie of murder), and Judge Michael Folner (who defended the suit, claimed fabulously rich Julie for his reward, and has been dropping money into enough pockets in the meantime to put himself in line for the Supreme Court). How can Tony and his unwilling partner, Sgt. Lena Bedrosian, elude the local cops, the bulldog FBI agents on their trail, and the long arm of Folner's law long enough to bring the still-active killer to book? More chase than investigation, really, though Tony's debut is marked by a certain lazy mental competence to match the physical stamina he's going to need.

Book Two: EYE of the GATOR

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly:

The second Tony Lowell mystery (after Hour of the Manatee) rapidly intensifies as not one but two psychopaths seize control of the narrative. Divorced, ponytailed Lowell, a Vietnam vet who's crazy for boats and doesn't like guns, is most interesting when he parks his morals and beds a killer's wife. The nephew of an old friend, a young black man investigating a phosphates-manufacturing company, is shot to death. Overworked career-cop Lena Bedrosian, another friend of Tony's and a sometime stick in the mud, asks him to help investigate. The bad guys here, Dickey Cahill and Leonard Smith, are the intriguing characters. Dickey's wife is Tony's unwise conquest. The dead youth had the bad luck to fall for Leonard's girl, who had once tangled with Dickey (and has a kid to prove it). Had Ayres given Dickey and Leonard central roles, this would have been a richer book; had he put more humor into play, he'd have entered Elmore Leonard territory. Still, the vicious twosome are unforgettably bad, providing a nice foil for Tony, who seems a little too good but remains a likable fellow.

From Library Journal:

Tampa Bay-area private investigator Tony Lowell is an underemployed Vietnam vet and inveterate sailor. He assists police detective Lena Bedrosian (Hour of the Manatee, St. Martin's, 1994) in solving the murder of a young African American employee of the state's environmental protection agency. Tony's quest for information takes him to the inland hamlets of Orange Blossoms and Manatee. While there, he questions the close-mouthed employees of a phosphate plant about a suspicious sinkhole and dodges the abusive boyfriend of a beautiful witness. Ayres exhibits mastery of the Florida setting, a firm handle on characterizations, and a good sense of dramatic timing. For all collections.

From Booklist:

Retired photographer, beach bum, and sometime sleuth Tony Lowell is a roguish forty-something hippie whose only nod to the establishment is his feisty friendship with police detective Lena Bedrosian. Lowell's latest adventure begins when old friend Ernie Larson asks him to investigate the disappearance of Ernie's nephew, Timothy Cross, a young black man who came to Florida to work as an environmental engineer. It doesn't take long for Lowell to find out that Tim's been murdered, but why is another matter. Following a complex and tricky trail of clues leads Lowell through the minefields of racial prejudice, battered women, illicit affairs, industrial cover-ups, graft, and corruption. Veteran writer Ayres knows his stuff--his characters are offbeat and intriguing, his plot is realistically menacing, he offers a nice balance of humor and suspense, and Tony Lowell is a wacky but likable guy who is sort of Travis McGee, Don Quixote, and Willie Nelson rolled into one. Emily Melton –

From The St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times):

A Mystery with a Conscience:

“After the publication of his debut novel Hour of the Manatee, E. C. Ayres was praised for his sharp and original style. Now in his sophomore effort, the St. Petersburg (now Seattle) resident has done it again. He has brilliantly and thoughtfully interwoven a suspenseful tale with some actual, pressing Florida environmental issues. Eye of the Gator is a must-read for anyone looking for a brainy mystery.

The opening pages of Eye of the Gator begin rather slowly. We again meet photographer and part-time P.I. Tony Lowell, first introduced in Hour of the Manatee. Now almost broke, Lowell is smarting from the sudden departure of his daughter, with whom he recently was reunited. Then he learns that Timothy Cross, the nephew of Ernie Larson, one of Lowell’s oldest pals, has been murdered. Lowell agrees to help his friendly rival, Detective Lena Bedrosian, find Cross’s killer.

Cross was a recent college graduate and an environmental activist working for the government, so Lowell first investigates the under-the-table dealings of the local fertilizer plant, Florida Fertilizers. There he finds workers willing to risk contamination of the state aquifer to save their jobs. (Unfortunately, this is often a real-life occurrence, as Ayres illustrates with a quote from the St. Petersburg Times on the contamination of the Florida aquifer).

Lowell’s list of suspects doesn’t include just fertilizer thugs. He also finds himself pitted against racist hippie-haters and a rather dangerous and violent boyfriend with Special Forces training. In fact, as in most good mystery novels, everyone seems to deserve the shaft—from the racist fertilizer industry do-boy, to the jealousy-filled black advocacy group leader.

But as the novel draws to an end, Ayres provides enough information so that we’re able to narrow down the list. In a refreshing change from the casually thrown-together mystery, all of P.I. Tony Lowell’s pieces fit.

Lowell fits too. One of the most pleasing things about Ayres’ hero is his lack of testosterone-driven emotion (although there is the mandatory, gratuitous sex scene, which isn’t all that graphic).

The level-headed Lowell doesn’t even carry a gun. In an entertainment industry usually driven by murder and mayhem, Eye of the Gator reserves most of its killing for the climax. Of course, Lowell is trained in special defense tactics, so don’t try this at home.”--Carlos Senior, The St. Petersburg Times

Book Three: NIGHTof the PANTHER

Editorial Reviews

From The Tampa Bay Times:

“This spring three Florida mystery writers weighed in with new books. Two of the state’s best, James W. Hall and Randy Wayne White are coming off big successes. E. C. (Gene) Ayres, still working his way up the ladder might, just might, have produced the best book of the three.

Ayres manages to combine many of the Florida issues of the day into one relatively taut novel. Night of the Panther is a project that succeeds on some levels and falls short on others. It isn’t the first story that ever tried to work with two protagonists, but to pull it off, they must have equal time on stage. Panther sells one of them very short , and unfortunately, that one is Tony Lowell, Ayres’ continuing series character.

Games and Fresh Water Fish officer Marge Pappas, who lives among the wildlife in her charge, is murdered mysteriously. Her first cousin, Lena Bedrosian, a Manatee City police detective, is devastated by Marge’s death, and she is quickly taken off the case by a boss who says she is too close to it. So she calls on Lowell for help, which he agrees only reluctantly to give.

The story develops into a tale of a local militia, a hunt club that caters to the politically powerful, local corruption and an inevitable manhunt that puts the protagonists’ lives on the line.

Ayres knows his subject matter and does a wonderful job of giving his story a sense of place and realistic Florida texture.”

From Library Journal:

When "poachers" murder her best friend, a game warden in Big Cypress Swamp, Manatee City police detective Lena Bedrosian calls upon part-time private investigator Tony Lowell for help. Florida atmosphere, a good ecological subject, fine entertainment.

From Booklist

Sometime private eye Tony Lowell is ready to take his finally refurbished wooden schooner on its maiden voyage. Then his friend Lena Bedrosian calls. Lena's cousin, conservation officer Marge Pappas, has just been found dead, her bullet-riddled body floating in Corkscrew Swamp. Tony agrees to investigate, and soon he's managed to stir up a hornet's nest of poachers, local militia, corrupt sheriff's deputies, powerful businessmen, and even a state senator. The steamy, alligator-ridden Florida swamp is the perfect setting for Ayres' menacing, suspense-filled mystery. The characters--mostly corrupt, tobacco-chewing good ol' boys driving pickup trucks with rifle racks--are almost too perfectly stereotypical, but Ayres knows how to make them leap off the page. There's also no denying that his style and tone are as close to that of the beloved John D. MacDonald as anyone writing today. A fine mystery. Emily Melton –

From Kirkus Reviews

The conventional picture of Florida's theme parks, lush condos, and early-bird dinners gets short shrift here as Ayres homes in on southern Florida's alligator-infested Big Cypress Swamp, bordered by hunting preserves, protected state lands, and miles of citrus groves. It's here that p.i./photographer Tony Lowell (Eye of the Gator, etc.) has arrived, asked by Collier County Police Lt. Lena Bedrosian to investigate the death of her cousin Marge Pappas, a Fish and Game officer, shot to death near her camp in the swamp, the killing labeled a hunting accident. What Tony finds is obstruction at every turn: an obvious cover-up by surly policemen Kohler and Vega; a nastily licentious bar owner- -Duvall Patterson, with a put-upon wife and a usually drunken son Billy whom Tony befriends; a home-grown militia of anti-everything louts; and the trophy-obsessed members of the Caloosahatchee Hunt and Gun Club, in cahoots with State Representative Bob Hathcock to engineer a land steal that will mostly benefit millionaire landowner Quentin Lejeune. Making his way from one dangerous encounter to another, with Lena's life on the line as the end draws near, Tony finally gets to the very ugly truth and an almost incidental killer. A heavily detailed look at roads less traveled, a scary take on the lunatic fringe, some quirky characters, and an unflappable detective--all make the third in this series the liveliest and most readable of Lowell's adventures yet.

Book Four: LAIRof the LIZARD

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly:

The most interesting moment in Ayres's fourth book (after last year's Night of the Panther) about Florida PI Tony Lowell comes when Lowell meets up with another PI named Joshua Croft in Santa Fe and finds him boozy and "semi-retired... a man of leisure." Croft is the hero of three well-received books by Walter Satterthwait set in that New Mexico city (Accustomed to the Dark, etc.). Other than this apparent homage among literary friends, little else in this routine outing rises to a level of fascination. Lowell, a ponytailed Vietnam vet and former top photographer of the glitterati, now lives in rural Florida, where he restores an old boat and does as little detective work as possible. But when his wide-eyed daughter, Ariel, asks him to find Alicia Sandoval, a friend from a New Age seminar in Santa Fe who seems to be fleeing from an abusive husband, Lowell drops his tools and takes off for that trendy city. Almost immediately, he's threatened by teenage Latino gangsters and gets involved in racial and familial strife.

From Booklist:

Retired photojournalist Tony Lowell's fourth adventure finds him looking for Alicia Sandoval, a friend of Lowell's daughter, Ariel. The two women met at a New Age workshop in Santa Fe. Just divorced, Alicia was terrified of her violent ex-husband. Ariel hasn't heard from Alicia for several weeks and fears trouble. Lowell thinks his daughter is overreacting, but he agrees to fly to Santa Fe and check it out. There he learns that Alicia's ex-husband is threatening her, and no one--including the local cops--seems too concerned. Meanwhile, Alicia has disappeared. Lowell's persistence--plus some timely help from a local PI and a New Age mystic--finally cracks the case. Ayres' books are taut, tense, and action-packed, with a strong male hero and provocative commentary on morality and social ills. The pronounced resemblance to Travis McGee and Spenser will delight fans of those two major mystery icons. Emily Melton

From Kirkus Reviews:

In a fourth outing, Tony Lowell, photographer/p.i. (Night of the Panther etc.), doting daddy that he is, succumbs to twitchy daughter Ariel's blandishments and leaves Florida's Gulf Coast, where he has been snugly content, for Santa Fe. Therebefore you can say culture shock he grows perfectly miserable. What could be making a Nervous Nellie out of Ariel? Well, it seems that she, who marches to all manner of different New Age drummers, has intuited that a friend of hers is in trouble. Since Lowell is a papa for whom daughterly pouting carries the force of command, he hops a plane. And, of course, it turns out that Ariel is correct: Alicia Sandoval is being stalked by her former husband, mean and mad Danny Lopez. Still, everyone in Santa Fe including the Sandoval family, the police force, and an incredibly insensitive array of other locals regards Danny as not much more than slightly wild. Never mind that on various occasions he has publicly humiliated Alicia, beaten her, sent her to the hospital, and finally raped her. The prevailing attitude: these things happen, and Lowell, ``the outsider Anglo dude,'' just doesn't get it. Ethnic tradition, he's told, supports a man's right to monitor his woman's behavior. Then suddenly Alicias on the run again, with Danny running after her (wielding his switchblade). Now, as Dannys about to become homicidal, Lowell at last snags Santa Fe's attention. But still, unfortunately, there's not much here to snag a reader's beyond an assembly-line sleuth and humdrum story.

From Library Journal:

Tampa Bay-area PI Tony Lowell finds himself in New Mexico looking for a missing friend of his daughter. While there, he enlists the aid of a local investigator and a mystic. Instant atmosphere and telling drama.

lFrom Booklist:

Introducing E. C. Ayres’ new series,

The Jake Fleming Investigations

Overview:

The Jake Fleming Investigations features a muck-raking global investigative reporter by that name. He is a member of not one, but two endangered species (or entities): newspaper journalists, and their places of employment.

Book One: A TIGER’s HEART

In this first salvo of Jake Fleming's introduction, San Francisco-based Investigative reporter Jake Fleming has a problem: Desmond Lewis, a Professor of English Literature and an old friend of his from London has vanished, en-route to a talk at the University of California in Berkeley about a new book promising shocking revelations. He never arrives. When a rented car is found parked on the Golden Gate Bridge with Lewis's travel bag in the trunk, the police deem it a suicide. Jake doesn't believe that for a minute, and convinces his newspaper, The San Francisco Tribune, to sponsor a trip to London to investigate.

When Jake arrives, he discovers Lewis's office and apartment have both been ransacked. Any evidence of a new book is gone: no manuscripts, no flash drives, nothing. The only remaining clue is a list of brief words or abbreviations. Their meaning escapes him, but it's all he has.

Here is the first review:

Great Treatment Of A Centuries-Old Question!

A thoroughly enjoyable page-turner, but also a dramatic way of treating the Shakespeare authorship issue. I admit I am familiar with the research, so I know the Shakespeare parts are accurate, but the debate is brought to life in a compelling read. Of course the contemporary characters are fictitional, but that’s what makes it fun. I read it in two days.

Historically Accurate,
Couldn't Put It Down,
Made Me Smarter

Yes, I recommend this product.
Caryl Baron, Independent reviews

The non-fiction companion book: The SHAKESPEARE CONUNDRUM:

Overview:

The controversy over the authorship of Shakespeare is two centuries old, and the doubters were numerous: Mark Twain, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Dickens, Sigmond Freud, Charlie Chaplin, even Orson Welles questioned the veracity of Shakespeare as author. For starters, the man had no known education. He was raised by illiterate parents in a rural farm village, where the local school only had three grades. But even that much schooling is in doubt, because there is no evidence he was ever registered there (or anywhere) as a student. He signed his wedding certificate with an 'x'. His will included no books—not even a bible—and his gravestone epitaph is superstitious and illiterate.

So, who was the true author? Once again, the evidence is extensive and conclusive and points in a single direction, to a man forced to live in exile sending plays from Italy to the Globe, where Shakespeare, whose three roles in the company (actor, producer and 'author') assured that he would be first to receive anything, then he simply stamped his name on them. Four centuries of grave injustice cannot easily be overcome. But this is a start...

Just published, this book awaits reviews.

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