Rockville, MD (USA) – “The Examined Life,” a private eye novel by California author Virgil Jose and first published in 2008 in paperback, is now available in Kindle and Nook formats. Crime Spree Magazine calls it, "...one of those small gems that deserves to be dug out of the tens of thousands of books published each year".
The book introduces the reader to Gil Rodrigues, a private eye who investigates insurance fraud in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California. An affable – if world weary – widower, he lives with his cat and enjoys a relatively quiet life.
All that quickly changes when a good friend, David Chang, is murdered in a way that suggests a professional hit and Gil is asked by David’s family to investigate the murder.
Gil is sometimes helped and sometimes hindered by police detectives who don’t much care for a private eye meddling in what they believe to be their exclusive investigation. A Lieutenant Hara, a friend of Gil’s, is one such sometime ally, sometime adversary. As Gil uncovers one clue after another, leading him to believe that he is hot on the trail of David’s killer, he must also remain on Hara’s good side.
When he learns that his own life is in danger and he has to defend himself against a brutal physical assault, Gil is tempted to quit the case. When, however, he and his mistress Diana, who happens to be the victim’s sister, find themselves suspects in the murder, Gil is forced to go all out to find the killer and exact a diabolical revenge – something he does with relish and something to give the reader a chill.
The gritty plausibility of “The Examined Life” can be no coincidence. Author Virgil Jose is himself a licensed private investigator and a former resident of the multi-ethnic San Gabriel Valley of California where the story is set in 1987.
“It was inspired by real events,” says Jose, who became a freelance journalist after abandoning private investigations. Also, like his protagonist Rodrigues, he served as a military intelligence analyst after graduating from UCLA.
South Coast Media Services calls it “a sophisticated murder mystery with a sub-plot of industrial espionage – decidedly a must-read for lovers of the private eye genre”.
Rock Publishing: ISBN 978 1 59663 569 2 : Kindle ASIN B0051I53JE
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Get your copy of The Examined Life in Kindle Edition or The Examined Life in Paperback Edition
