5 Stars Best Book In The Esmeralda Goodbye, Corey Lynn Fayman crafts a suspenseful crime story about a patrolman who becomes entangled in a criminal saga with stakes as high as his life. The duty of investigating a suicide threat made by well-known author Raymond Chandler falls to Jake Stirling, one of the newest members of the San Diego Police Department. With a deft maneuver, Jake prevents Chandler from ending his life when he visits his apartment. This success fills Jake with excitement to make a name for himself in his new career as a police officer. Months later, he’s called to investigate the theft of a diamond necklace from the Del Charro Hotel. Jake first questions a hopeful lead: J. Edgar, the FBI Director, who just so happened to be there during the raid. But though Jake plans to simply file a report so that detectives can be assigned to the case, he’s taken aback when the director encourages him to give up the case and concentrate his time elsewhere, such as assisting the decent, law-abiding citizens in the neighborhood. As he mulls over the director’s idea, a well-known name from the Creeper case— which had ruined his father, a police officer before his death— reappears. Jake becomes engrossed in speculations about a piece of interest he took from Chandler’s house a few months earlier. Moreover, he encounters a formidable investigative officer who is secretly working with a web of cartels. Jake’s life takes a drastic turn after a buddy passes away, and he quickly discovers that his independent demeanor has given his bosses cause for concern. Bearing down on him all the while, the Creeper case has turned its destructive attention from father to son. Fayman has crafted a page-turner filled with drama, intrigue, and thrilling action that readers will find difficult to put down. Starting with an unlikely sequence of events, the first chapters reveal unexpected motivations from unlikely individuals. A steady and regulated pace during the uncovering of the mystery keeps readers steeped in curiosity and ever-changing theories, with skillful distribution of clues. New information gradually comes to light through the interactions of real, multifaceted individuals, and a high degree of tension stretches from beginning to end. “The Esmeralda Goodbye” is a masterpiece with excellent character development. Its remarkable tale and charming hero revel in the excess of 1950s Southern California atmospheres.

Editor's Pick Murders, mobsters, intelligence agency intrigue, and a touch of old-Hollywood glamor power this accomplished crime noir novel from Fayman (author of the Rolly Waters mystery series). In the 1950s, San Diego police officer Jake Stirling’s career is off to a successful start after he prevents the suicide of harboiled author Raymond Chandler, whose titles are echoed by this novel’s. The next year, Jake, assigned to La Jolla, is called to investigate the theft of Zsa Zsa Gabor’s diamond necklace and the train case it was stored in from the Del Charro Hotel room she shares with her latest paramour, Artie Corcoran. Working the case, Jake meets FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who seeks Jake’s loyalty, asking him to update Hoover about the investigation rather than Jake’s boss, Captain Wade Lennox. Jake recovers the missing necklace, but not the train case, but the body count rises, with gangsters like Meyer Lansky seemingly involved. Uncertain who to trust, Jake—a good cop who joined the force “to serve and protect”—endeavors to find the truth before anyone else winds up dead, including him. Fayman adds authenticity to this brisk, twisty mystery with a richly evoked milieu, from beach mansions to sea caves to a Hollywood premiere, and historical figures with a real La Jolla connection. Their fictionalized dialogue and motivations feel fitting to the genre—Chandler even tips Jake off to classic noir elements like the possible corruption of the police department and the captain he works for. The story finds Jake’s faith in institutions tested as he learns that even Hoover is not upstanding in either how he treats others or in his blatant racist remarks. Bursts of action and romance are effective, but it is Fayman’s stunning conclusion, with Jake faced with the reality of not trusting anyone in his professional life, and the hint of future installments, that will resonate most with readers.

Corey Lynn Fayman’s The Esmeralda Goodbye is a trouble-in-paradise thriller with high stakes action and a star-studded cast that pays homage to Raymond Chandler. When young beat officer Jake Stirling keeps famous writer Raymond Chandler from shooting himself at his California home, Jake doesn’t anticipate that Chandler’s gun will become part of a circle of grift, corruption, and cover-up when mobsters, film stars, and FBI Director J. Egar Hoover descend on La Jolla for the racing season. Jake is already dealing with a domineering boss, Wade Lennox; his delinquent younger brother, Danny; and the case that drove Jake’s father, a respected police detective, to suicide. Jake’s high morals are tested when he joins the search for an expensive necklace stolen from actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, especially since it appears Jake’s old friend Todd DuBarry is the culprit. When bodies start turning up, Jake assembles the signs pointing to an enormous cover-up, but trying to discern the good guys from the bad might cost Jake his career, if not his life. The prose is swift and up to the task, if quieter than Chandler’s classic hardboiled style. Fayman evokes the era well, particularly the anti-porn, anti-Communist crusades of the 1950s, and the characters reveal themselves in vivid, distinct dialogue. None of the corruption, lies, or prejudice strays outside conventional villainy, and Fayman holds his own on well-covered ground with swift, taut scenes, each delivering a piece of the puzzle that will keep the reader engaged. The loss of innocence of naïve, handsome, upright Jake is the book’s most poignant element; at the end, he reflects that “The world was corruption and the light, at this angle, illuminated the dust and the grime that floated in the invisible air.” Instead of resolution, the ending offers a cliffhanger to the next in a planned trilogy. No matter. Fans of Raymond Chandler and his inheritors will enjoy this nostalgic spree.