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Crime Fiction mystery set in the Quad Cities along the Mississippi River. There is no crime that Private Detective Mike Scofield can’t crack. Acclaimed Midwest author Patrick Irelan’s first novel is set along the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois. The action goes from bridge to bridge, city to city, even a jaunt down to Iowa’s only island town, Sabula. Life in these river towns can be gritty and rough. Written with a touch of Raymond Chandler, this rollicking, wisecracking, crime novel is full of a wide range of characters you’ll both enjoy and despise. Packed with love, mystery, and wit to keep you guessing “Whodunit” until the very end.
Patrick Irelan began writing mysteries with a series of short stories. With two exceptions, each of these appeared in either Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine or Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The Big Drugstore is his first mystery novel. He is also the author of two books of comic short stories—Reruns and The Miracle Boy. His two books of family memoir include Central Standard and A Firefly in the Night. Irelan is no stranger to the Quad Cities, in fact, Quad City Times writer Bill Wundram wrote of Irelan’s 1994 story, “There is no question that the author knows the Quad-Cities.”
Praise for The Big Drugstore
“A thousand wisecracks … could put the Quad Cities on the sleuthing map”—Kirkus Reviews
“The rhythm and phrasing of Patrick Irelan’s noir narrative is so natural you can almost hear someone blowing tenor under the bridge down by the river. The Big Drugstore reads like it was typed on a Royal portable at 2 am in a sleeping room above a bar. I’m sure the manuscript stank of spilled bourbon and cigarettes.” —J. Harley McIlrath, author, Possum Trot
“Raymond Chandler with a touch of Midwestern wry.” —Roald Tweet, WVIK/NPR Radio, Quad Cities