Dark, gritty and filled with a sense of impending doom, The Long-Ago Dead is noir fiction at its fatalistic finest. Jason Bovberg brilliantly delivers this well-written ruthless narrative straight, no chaser.
Sydney Fleet is good at his job. Namely making problems – and people – disappear. But the past he has been trying to outrun for years has reared its ugly head and beckons him for a final, epic, deadly showdown. Spanning from San Jose to Denver and places in between, Fleet will have to summon superhuman levels of tenacity, fortitude and conviction to protect those closest to him, face his demons head on, eliminate every threat and end this very personal clash on his terms.
The Long-Ago Dead feels like a cinematic classic shot in black and white – or perhaps more fittingly, like a retro 70s/80s Kodachrome film complete with scratches. It’s a cold and calculating thriller that contains no wasted movement, just perpetual motion towards an ominous and inevitable conclusion. Containing wonderfully constructed characters, everyone serving a specific purpose to form the dark tapestry of the overall saga. And Fleet is the undeniable center of gravity – a complex character who contains multitudes and, despite his sinister profession as an agent for malevolent forces, remains someone to root for. Which brings emotion to the brutal, no-frills action that professionally yet quite personally spills blood in virtually every chapter.
This is a book that sticks with you long after completion. You won’t easily shake The Long-Ago Dead.
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