Shock Treatment

This first Owen Delaney mystery follows a young, imaginative Owen as he emerges from a deep personal funk when he accidentally uncovers what he imagines to be two staged murders. Following his own curiosity and instincts, despite universal feedback that the "murders" were the accidents they seemed to be and that he has simply let his active imagination run away with him, his path eventually crosses with that of a professional hit man intent on preserving the secrets of a complex real estate scam for his employers. From this point on, Owen must not only use his new-found purpose but also his courage and wits to survive.
In this's lucid and well plotted first novel in the Owen Delaney series, Gene Caffrey introduces the reader to some memorable characters in the Philadelphia legal and political community and gives a nice feel for life in that city. We also get a glimpse of Owen's future as he falls for the sister of one of the murder victims and begins a new phase of his life which, in follow up works which depict him as an amateur sleuth, is energized by a belief that his wild imagination can be a crime solving asset.