Contract Null and Void: A Dka File Novel

by Joe Gores

Book Overview

Things aren't going well for the tough private eyes of San Francisco-based Dan Kearny Associates. Marriages are falling apart, associates are going to jail, and dowagers are demanding sexual favors. Before long, DKA's cases begin to turn up murder and mayhem, bodies and blood, all engineered by someone who would like to see a troubled agency rendered null and void.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892965924
• ISBN13: 9780892965922
• Release Date: July 1996
• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A great mystery author with terrific character-smarts

Joe Gores is one of the most entertaining mystery authors around, no argument. He can write really tough, noir stories, but my favorites have always been his "DKA" novels, featuring Daniel Kearny, king of the San Francisco repo men, and his crew of talented and slightly strange operatives: Larry Ballard, good-looking white-bread and black belt in assorted martial arts; Bart Heslip, black ex-boxer and Larry's best friend; Giselle Marc, beauty combined with brains and organizational smarts; O'Bannon, elder statesman of repo artists and inveterate lush; Ken Warren, Vietnam veteran with a serious speech impediment; and numerous others who come and go throughout the series. Gores's specialty is to combine this retinue of fascinating people with complex -- but reasonable and logical -- multiple plots, an eye for telling detail and description, and a droll style of delivery that will have you laughing out loud on the bus. This time, the overlapping plots include Bart going undercover in the Tenderloin District, Giselle talking Dan (who's been thrown out of his house by his wife) into taking on a personal security job for a young computer geek who is about to become a semi-billionaire, Ken becoming the sexual target of the geek's aging society mom, Jacques Daniel trying to uncover union corruption and being run off a Marin cliff on his racing bike, Trin Morales trying to balance his repo load with his desire to become both a Latino godfather and the bane of underage chicas, and Larry getting involved with a gorgeous, feisty Italian labor union official who just may be more than he can handle. And then there's the two cops who have been a team so long they're known as Rozenkrantz and Guildenstern, automatically dressing alike and keeping up an endless stream of off-color jokes and patter. The pace is fast and steady, and ten pages from the end of the book, you'll shake your head and wonder how Gores can ever bring all the threads to a conclusion. But he does, and very tidily, too. This would make a wonderful film!

YOWZA ! ZOWIE!! Heh heh heh ...YIKES ! Good book, 'nuff said

Grab onto those armrests Folks ! Reading "CONTRACT NULL & VOID" will find one clutching the armrest in suspense filled anticipation, gripping to keep from laughing oneself onto the floor, and leaning an elbow in deep thought and contemplation. DKA is a hit as an agency! A cool, calculating efficient soap opera. The world is revealed in all its glorious personalities, the hunter and prey, the fragile webs of relationships, love and hate. The insanity of given situations contrasted with cold logic of having to be so to be sane.A great tale of suspense and mystery, Gore writes in a compact hard hitting style complementing the ranks of DKA. You won't want to put it down.