The Darkest Game

Detective Tully Jarsdel is known around the homicide division of the LAPD as the "professor policeman" since he abandoned his PhD studies in ancient history to become the oldest recruit. Then he was plucked from among his more senior colleagues for a special detail after excelling at a battery of tests designed to assess flexibility of thinking, an analytical mind...to solve cold and other "unsolvable" cases. He is partnered with a detective--Morales--who finds Jarsdel's expansive knowledge of the esoteric and his pedantic "lessons" to be constant provocation to eye-rolling dismissal.

Author Joseph Schneider himself comes from an unconventional background. His former careers include acting, magic, and teaching dance. This is the 3rd installment in the "Tully Jarsdel" mystery series and is kicked off by the point blank shooting of Dean Burken, senior curator at the Huntington Library and Museum. There are lovely descriptions of both that setting and some of the inner workings of the Huntington. The investigation of the murder soon leads to the community of Avalon on Catalina island following the murder of a member of the Huntington's board of directors.  Throughout, we are offered glimpses of Tully's family life--again, very unconventional--which consists of two fathers, one of whom, Baba, is an Iranian emigre and the other, Dad, who is dying of cancer. We also get tidbits about the persecution of those who would challenge the Ayatolloah, after the Revolution in Iran, that drove Baba to leave.

Kirkus especially likes the "elaborate banter between the two detectives. The rogues’ gallery of suspects is as quirky and colorful as anything in Hammett or Chandler, and Schneider’s plot, while linear, is full of surprises...Morales’ brusque, slangy dialogue plays nicely against Tully’s stylish, erudite speech." And they conclude that this book offers "Juicy prose redolent of classic noir, with contemporary twists." Publishers Weekly is more equivocal in its review, complaining about the "lengthy if astute asides on such topics as the museum business, the city's Persian population (Jarsdel's father emigrated from Iran), L.A. history (including, notably, the genocide of the region's indigenous people), and the moral challenge of police work in general..." but concludes that "This flawed but deeply intelligent novel will reward thoughtful readers."