Mini Review: The Nikki Griffin Action Thrillers by S.A. Lelchuk

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 Save Me From Dangerous Men (2019) and One Got Away (2021) are pretty good action thrillers with enough danger, violence, and dead bodies to keep you reading deep into the night (personal experience). Blurbs compare Nikki to Jack Reacher and Lisbeth Salander but those are the obvious names to throw out to get people's attention. For me, Nikki is more like Robert Fates's character, Kristin Van Dijk, aka Baby Shark. Slight Detour: given the industry's love for female revenge films, I'm astounded that Baby Shark hasn't been turned into a movie.

Nikki is a private detective who also owns a used bookstore in Berkeley, Brimstone Magpie (a nod to Bleak House by Charles Dickens). While Nikki handles traditional PI work, her speciality is meting out what she calls proportional justice on men who hurt women and she's very good at convincing these men of the error of their ways.

I'm a retired librarian and a fun aspect of these book takes place in Nikki's bookstore when she is recommending books to customers. Nikki engages in what we in the library business call readers' advisory and I appreciate the [accurate] way the author works this into the story. 

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Warning: There may be spoilers ahead. I don't try to spare the reader.

There are a couple of things that annoy me a little that occur in these books. The biggie is the quirk the author gives Nikki: she refuses to carry a cell phone. She's a motorcycling riding private detective engaging in dangerous activities, tailing people, confronting people prone to violence, carrying out violent acts herself and she won't carry a phone! Any one of us can think of many scenarios where a cell phone would be essential. Besides the obvious calling for help or people calling her with warnings or information, there's access to maps and searching for people, places, and things. Instead, she has to borrow a phone when needed. Silly. I was equally annoyed by Lee Childe having Jack Reacher travel with just the clothes on his back and a tooth bush in his jacket pocket and no identification. Equally silly.

The author pulls out a trope I've really come to dislike intensely: a character says to the detective "I can't tell you now but meet me at 10 and I'll explain everything". Does anyone not know what's comes next? The author does avoid another trope where the detective puts important papers in a desk drawer and the office is later ransacked and the papers taken.

A miner quibble is when Nikki refers to semi-automatic pistol ammunition clips rather than using the correct word, magazines. At least firing a gun doesn't leave the smell of cordite.

Save Me From Dangerous Men

This is the first Nikki Griffin story so it is establishing her as a character, her environment, who she can call on for help in her PI work. Early on we learn about her aversion to cell phones. The main story has Nikki hired by a tech start-up to investigate an employee suspected of industrial espionage. Nikki figures out that neither the employee nor the company are what they seem and there is something much larger at stake, something that will have deadly results if not stopped. Along the way we see what Nikki considers proportional justice.

The big conspiracy plot didn't grab me overall though there are some nice investigative parts, deadly peril, grievous bodily harm, and Nikki adds to her body count. The way it wrapped up is a bit meh! for my tastes and I didn't think it likely to have resolved the way it did. 

This is a good character introduction. We get some back-story (traumatic event from childhood, drug addict brother), get to meet the love interest (an academic), meet Buster who runs a chop shop and has access to a three body trunk. And I really enjoy the scenes in Brimstone Magpie.

One Got Away

This second Nikki Griffin novel is much more to my liking. Her aversion to cell phones is still there but I am kind of making peace with it.

This time Nikki is hired by the son of the matriarch of an old money San Francisco [dysfunctional] family. The son fears that mom has fallen under the spell of a con man who is siphoning away family money. The con man is Dr. Geoffrey Coombs, Oxford educated doctor of psychology who is neither. Nikki soon discovers that Coombs' real education is how to avoid being caught. How Nikki tracks Coombs is very neatly done. She also learns that she is not the only one after Coombs and the case is a lot more complicated that she was briefed. Further complicating things is Nikki's growing respect for Coombs and the realization that they have a lot in common.

Buster returns in a bigger role, using his knowledge and contacts in the illegal automotive trade to assist Nikki. He is easily one of my favorite characters. Like Nikki, he doesn't mind breaking bones or putting a bullet in someone who needs it. Rough justice.

I swear the main villain is channelling The Fat Man from The Maltese Falcon. When he speaks I can hear Sidney Greenstreet's elaborate diction. This isn't a criticism, I thought it great fun. It gave me a visual image of the character though in black and white.

We do get the trope where the detective is fired but keeps on working because that's what detectives walking the mean streets do. Hey, it works for Philip Marlowe.

More action, more violence, a high body count, cool investigative techniques, delivering proportional justice, a human trafficking subplot (resolved), and a nice twisty ending make this a good action thriller. 

Save Me From Dangerous Men and One Got Away are an excellent start to a series and make me anticipate the next one.

Finally, go get a copy of Robert Fate's Baby Shark. I think you'll agree that Nikki and Kristin are sisters.

Keywords: action thriller, crime fiction, private detectives, female hero