Attorney Kevin Corvelli is coming off a stunning courtroom defeat in which his client, Brandon Glenn, was found guilty of murder. Brandon was soon after discovered dead in his jail cell, a suicide. Corvelli, trying to distance himself both geographically and professionally from this defeat, moves from Manhattan to Hawaii and vows (half jokingly, half seriously) to take only traffic tickets and misdemeanor cases.
When Jake, his law office landlord, brings Kevin a murder case with a $50,000 initial retainer, he’s hooked (he’s got a mountain of law school loans to pay). The case involves the murder of a young woman, Shannon Douglas, who the prosecutor suggests was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, with whom she recently broke up.
One Man’s Paradise, Douglas Corleone’s debut novel, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writer’s of America First Crime Novel Award (what a mouthful, huh?) and I can see why. Corleone has an easy going writing style, has created a bunch of great (presumably recurring) characters (Jake, Kevin and Flan their private investigator who all fled their past, as well as Dapper Don Watanabe, the prosecutor) and an interesting set of one time characters. The plot moved swiftly, with a satisfying number of twists and turns. While I’m not a ‘humorous’ mystery fan, Corleone’s humor was low key and I did laugh out loud a few times.
If One Man’s Paradise is the start of a series, and I think it is, bring it on. I’ll sign up for book two.
Two Heads Together 
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