The Tin Man by Brian W. Caves
A private investigator is asked by a famous model, to discover if the death of her father was really accidentalas she feels the police have hit a brick wall and have no further leads to follow. Simeon Cain decides to look into it. The results are both surprising and horrifying...
Tin Man is the first of a new series, which you will not want to miss. The novel is full of action and intrigue and the series is set to grow. Brian Caves is a great storyteller and this book is pure action all the way through, with twists and turns aplenty. The plotting is genius…
About the author
I started out as an engineer, then an estate agent, followed by senior management roles in cable TV and telecoms. Spent a few years as a management consultant and now work in the language translation industry.
I have played music all my life. Classically trained on the clarinet from the age of eight until fourteen when my world took a quantum leap forward after hearing Jimi Hendrix and Voodoo Child on the radio. I thought, wow, I gotta do that. I dumped the clarinet and I picked up the guitar and have never put it down. I have played alongside topflight musicians, both live and in studios.
From a young age I read books like Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Black Beauty, Swallows and Amazons, then The Famous Five, Billy Bunter, Jennings and Derbyshire, Biggles, and Tarzan. Agatha Christie had a major impact as did Georges Simenon. I penned short stories at school – mostly adventure, but it wasn’t until I became hooked on American Crime Noir that my urge to write came crashing to the forefront of my mind. Reading Hammett, Chandler, Jim Thompson, Macdonald, and the master, James M. Cain had the same effect on my potential writing career as Hendrix had for my music.
Currently, having been further influenced by the greats of Southern literature, I write crime stories based in the Deep South as well as UK based dark noir crime set in the county of Northamptonshire where I reside. Throw into the pot crime and horror short stories and novellas and you’ll have some idea of what goes on in my head.
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bwcaves
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_caves
Review
‘The Tine Man’ is a brilliant starting block on which to build the Simeon Cain series. It was engaging, thrilling, intriguing and had many nods to old-school detective stories. I flew through this excellent book in one sitting and I would certainly read more in the series. I found Simeon to be an interesting character with many layers to peel away at in further books.
PI Simeon Cain is approached by a famous model as she wants to find out what happened to her father. He was attacked 500 yards from his home and died in the assault. The police think it was a mugging gone wrong but Samantha believes there is more too it as her father was acting strangely the week before his death. Sim agrees to take on the case and quickly finds out that there is more to this than meets the eye…
I liked Sim as the protagonist as he has that lateral thinking that allows him to uncover information, process it and then come to logical deductions! But he also comes across as generally a lovely person, yes he has demons but he comes across as genuine and trustworthy. It clears he has empathy which is shown by how he treats ‘the tin man’!
I loved the pacing of this book, it lays the foundations and there are as many twists and turns as there are in a maze! Man, that ending was audacious - such a unique premise.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next to Sim!
