Frame Up

- Frame Up (Grey Swan Press, September 2012), the debut novel by James Phoenix, offers fans of Robert Parker a new, street-smart Boston private eye named Fenway Burke. Given the Christian name of "Fenway," it is appropriate that James Phoenix's hero covers the same turf as Spencer, but Burke's home base is a rusting, steel-hulled, fifty-eight foot boat moored in Marblehead harbor about 10 miles north of Boston.

Fenway Burke is cast by Phoenix in the same blunt, masculine, first person style of so many great, hardboiled detective novels. The memorable characters in Frame Up include a hulk of a man named Tiny, who runs Boston's largest bookie operation; a white-bearded lobsterman named Wiff, a fixture in Maddie's Bar on Front Street in Marblehead; and Fenway's love interest, Megan Griffin, a six-foot tall, statuesque Boston public defender.

When Tiny asks for help to clear a kid who had been framed for murder, Fenway takes the case and soon finds himself up against sinister forces with far more financial resources and ruthless connections than he expected. Bodies begin to pile up as Fenway discovers that he is pitted against one of the most violent and talented international hit men in the world. Proving that the kid is innocent is complicated by a major stumbling block: just being able to stay alive.