Chain-smoking, sardonic Jimmy Campaglia and his partner, the perpetually stoned Bailey, are trying to make a name for themselves as private investigators in Tampa, Florida. Business has been slow—barely enough to pay the bills—until Jimmy lands a new case involving Republican state Senator Dick Whitlock and his family. Some risqué photos of the Whitlocks’ son, Tony, have surfaced, along with a demand for a large sum of money. In a desperate attempt to protect their conservative Mormon reputation, the family employs Jimmy and Bailey to track down the blackmailer. What the investigators find instead is a mess of corruption, family secrets, and betrayal with a body count on the rise.
Swanson’s narrator Jimmy evokes the hazy grit of central Florida in the mid-1990s with an eye for detail. From the grunge of downtown to the pristine, expensive suburbs, THE EIGHT-DAY CLOCK is perfectly atmospheric. As he and his partner attend a psychic fair, Jimmy observes: “…the enormous conference room, with its cream-and-peach-and-coral shell motif and innocuously tacky carpet…the weird dancing sparkle of the pool’s reflected light mixes with a blazing late afternoon stream of dust and sun.” The novel is full of readable prose. Every facial expression and tiny character movement, coupled with vivid descriptions of appearances, is effective in displaying Jimmy’s observational talent. His dry wit is typical of most detective-types, but his blunt sarcasm is a highlight of his narrative skills. Jimmy’s sexuality, as well as his partner’s and others, is presented in a way that it doesn’t define him entirely, it’s just a facet of his character—a piece of common ground that endears him to Tony Whitlock’s case. It is a refreshing change from most other stories focused on gay protagonists.
While the plot is slow-moving at times and takes a while to build up, the multiple twists and turns are unexpected. Most are par for the course when dealing with a politically influential family with such a large empire, but the resolution is worth the time it takes to weave each plot thread. There is a large and unique cast of characters to keep tabs on, each person more entangled with the last as the story unfolds. A few fast-paced car chase sequences and intense confrontations at gunpoint also do well to heighten the action.
Filled with wit, political intrigue, and tense character drama. THE EIGHT-DAY CLOCK is an intricately-woven detective story.
~IndieReader