Grimes is the latest hardboiled detective I have thought up. My first was Jack Hennessey from the novel Division Six. Directly out of Jack came Chamberlain Cotton from my novel Blood Oranges. Hennessey is a grizzled detective beyond his years due to a little super natural mineral, but none the less, he is the quintessential1950's boiled PI. Cotton is softer than Jack but also set in the 1950's. As Cotton grew into his own, I kind of saw him as Jim Rockford-esque. Another thing these two characters had in common was that they were both established in the PI trade. Jack, due to an alien rock, looked 35 but was actually 50. Cotton who was about 35 had been a PI and bounty hunter for years. With these two investigators already down in print, I stepped back and wondered what their first day of work may have been like. So Roger Grimes stepped up and became a PI.
Grimes is neither an ex-cop nor solider. He is a guy about 30 who sees his time as a thief coming to an end. He wants out before a federal rap can catch up to him. A job test offered the idea for PI. Simple course work got him a license and he was off.
Grimes had not forgotten his thief ways and used a lot of his street training as well as MMA training, in his new job when a powerful local attorney hires Grimes to help an old friend find his missing daughter. The job takes Grimes down the darkest of paths, pushing his limits beyond any laws he broke as a thief, and tests what little morality he has left.
There are several "out of retirement" bad asses out there but no stories of what those men were before they retired. Grimes' Punishment is just that tale, one of a man who wants to do good, do right for his wrongs, and gets none of that. Hard boiled and as noir as it gets, Grime's Punishment is how it all began.
For a review check out Sons of Spade
