PI Red Farlow is on the hunt to find $300 million a Florida insurance executive has bilked out of family and friends.Woody Cunningham stashed the money in safe havens around the world before disappearing. Has he been done in by one of his enemies? Or did he skip town with his girlfriend to live off the ill-gotten wealth? If that’s the case, where is he?Farlow must quickly learn how and why people … how and why people hide their money in offshore accounts if he’s to find out what happened to Cunningham.
When a tough guy from Farlow’s past resurfaces, wanting to settle an old score, Farlow discovers he also has links to the missing man. Clues lead him across Georgia and Florida, and Europe, to find the answers.
Is Woody Cunningham dead, or just rich and gone?
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I thought this story started out a little slow, but I kept reading because I liked Red Farlowe, P.I. A great character that W. F. Ranew created in this first book of a series. Red’s retired from the Georgia FBI and I enjoyed the southern thinking and styles of many of the characters and found myself being caught up in some of those beautiful southern drawls as well as the sights and scenes in the countries Red travels to. Rich and gone has to do with a wealthy, powerful man being as you can imagine…rich. But is he gone or dead? That’s the reason Red has a case.
As you can already deduce, I didn’t think Ranew’s story stayed slow. It seemed to pick up and sort of take off. It may be that the initial explanation to introduce us was a little slow, but his storytelling and his writing fell right into place. Writing from a character’s point of view is not always easy but the author did a good job here. I also enjoyed Red’s love of his life, Leigh. It gave a tough, gritty, crime fiction story a softness and a breath of fresh air. Nice combination.
As I said, this was the first book in a series. I sure hope Red Farlowe gets hired on some other cases because I’d like to read more about him.
Rich and Gone by W.F. Ranew
Red Farlow has retired from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and has set up as a Private Investigator. The case we meet him on is one that has him searching for 300 million dollars that has been misappropriated and hidden. Then, shortly after the money disappeared, so did Woody Cunningham. Follow the money they say…and so Red does but in so doing he also tried to locate Woody – dead or alive.
I really enjoyed looking over Red’s shoulder as he begins to follow leads that are presented as he works to unravel this case. His interactions with law enforcement, newspaper reporters and all the other people that became known as he pursued one lead after another were fascinating. In movies and on TV the case is wrapped up by the end of the show but this case took a bit of time, required trips to foreign countries, involved interactions with lethal characters, mentioned intriguing cases and characters from his past and gave me true insight into what it might be like to plod rather than whisk along while trying to unearth mysteries that would lead to a resolution by the end of the book. I would sometimes wonder what purpose a person might have in the story and be left dangling only to have that thread tied up neatly a few pages on. And, the book was definitely tied up by the end of the book and done so in a believable and interesting way.
What I liked:
* Red Farlow’s maturity, wisdom and character
* The first persona narration in Red’s voice
* The way information is presented in bits and tidily tied up in the end
* The supporting characters
* The fact that I would like to see the next book in this series when it is published
What I did not like:
* The people and events I was meant not to like
Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.
4-5 Stars