Thicker Than Water (A Leo Waterman Mystery)

I truly enjoyed Thicker Than Water (A Leo Waterman Mystery) by G.M. Ford. I loved the way the author handled the structure of revealing his plot; I loved how the author revealed the character of the protagonist; I loved the natural dialogue; and I loved the story. I am not going to give any kind of synopsis because I want people to have the pleasure of discovery with this book, as I had. I will say that the writing is well done and that there are very, very few problems with typos and formatting; on a few occasions, words were missing entirely, but context made those few omissions of no import for the reader. I have often seen much worse along those lines in tangible, ink-on-paper books.

This is the first review that I have taken the time to write for a book that I have bought from Amazon. When I used to think about actually going to the trouble of writing reviews, I figured that no one would need to hear what I thought about a book anyway, so why bother? But this author deserves to have people know that his work really is good, and worth being read, so I’m adding my voice to that of the crowd here on Amazon. Before I ever wrote a review, I had decided that for my favorite books I would give only 4 stars to leave room in case I ever found something that I deemed to be the perfection of literature. This book changed my mind. I loved this book and I’m giving it five stars! I admit that it is not my idea of perfection of literature (for that I require an author to use the subjunctive everywhere it’s called for and to use the preterite of a given verb even when people nowadays incorrectly use the past participle…), but a really enjoyable book that exists is worth more stars than a hypothetically perfect one that doesn’t, and this book deserves its five stars!

I found that the author made it really easy to care about the characters and about what happened to them. And for the record, the hero *is* a hero! (And so are his trusty sidekicks!)

I hope that people reading this review will decide to give Thicker Than Water a try for themselves. And now I’m off to look for more by G.M. Ford! Good reading, everyone!

I ” bumped into” G M Ford’s novels one day, and they became my favourite. All.
The caracters have depth, and it’s fun to grown to know them book by book (this is Leo Waterman’s 7th), although it’s not necessary to read Ford’s books in order to enjoy them anyway. One of the things I appreciate is the non “heroic” nature of our heroes: Leo is a very understated kind of PI, reluctant, almost, that in this novel is found simply enjoying his trust fund, when met with the urgency of action. And the so called “crowd”, a bunch of drunken marry bums that are Leo’s occasional helpers are simply fantasic. These books are full of enjoyment, from the interesting situation that needs to be unraveled to the fun of the dialogues, to the mastery of the writer, Mr Ford, that simply knows how to write a good book. This novels comes 12 years after the last Leo Waterman book. It has been a complete surprise, that found me, a humble fan, like a five year old child waking up to a Christmas morning in July. Dear Mr Ford, I honestly missed you very much. Welcome back.

Leo is older, and technology has advanced, but the heart of Leo Waterman is still the same. He doesn’t have the ambitions of a hero, but situations just place him in that role. And once he sees what needs to be done, he can’t help but do his best to make it happen. Doggedly, and with a little help from his drunken Baker Street boys.

G.M. Ford has been cited by Kirkus Reviews as “well on his way to becoming the Raymond Chandler of Seattle”, and that is an apt description of his style.

“When I got in the cab, I had every intention of going home, of taking a hot shower and maybe even a short siesta. In the front parlor of my brain, the lace curtains were drawn, and I was turning out the lights. Apparently, however, my brain also had a steamy back room, where they were having a meeting and hadn’t bothered to invite me.

We were rolling down the steep part of Denny when a voice told the driver, “Get on the freeway. Go north.”

I looked around to see who said it, but found myself alone.”

After having written several darker (and excellent) Frank Corso novels, Ford returns to Leo Waterman, and while the last Waterman novel “The Deader The Better” demonstrated a harder edge than the previous Waterman novels, Thicker Than Water, retains that hard edge, but also reintroduces the comic relief the ramshackle posse Waterman relies in when the going gets desperate.

I wait impatiently for Ford’s next novel.

This book was excellently written and thoroughly enjoyable. I borrowed it on Amazon Prime, but this was well worth the purchase price. Written from the perspective of the main character, with humor and humility, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had trouble putting it down for long. It was refreshingly free from vocabulary errors and read as if a competent editor had actually reviewed the manuscript. I’ll definitely be looking for more books by this author!

Great story, Great characters, Great outcome!!!!

I am sorry to say that I just learned of this author and this is his 7th book. What? I read at least a book every two days and gobble up police procedurals, mysteries and thrillers like they were brownies. I have never heard of these books.

If you are like me and love a great story, not violent or gory but just a great cast of characters you will love this.

Leo is an ex PI and only a PI as he was awaiting his fathers trust fund to kick in at the ripe age of 45. Leo is contacted by his ex mother in law (no love lost there) saying his ex wife Rebecca is missing. Turns out her husband is also missing.

The story revolves around Leo trying to find his ex wife and using his cast of characters, namely 6 street people and a few good friends that are cops to figure it out.

Honestly, I was on the edge of my seat finishing this book. He is funny in a Harlan Coben kind of way but with nothing but his wit and smarts to get him out of his situations. I will now order the first 6.

humorous and exciting. just like a gm ford novel should be. i have read the corso series and just found leo aterman. i will be back for more.

Enjoyed the book. The guy never stoped to eat. Just kept on the run. Will read more from the author.

Just found the leo waterman mysteries. I loved it—could not put it down. Looking forward to finding other leo waterman mysteries to read.