Tears in the Rain: A Noah Greene Mystery

Noah Greene is a bicycle mechanic and wannabe private investigator with Philip Marlowe fantasies. He works in a down-at-the-heels bike shop in Miami. (What is it about crime-fiction writers and Florida?) He has a scruffy office for his (very minimal) PI business above the shop. This story begins in traditional fashion with an attractive young woman who seeks his help in finding her brother. It looks like a straight forward missing person job, but Green soon finds himself up to his neck in danger involving “MSG”. As Noah Greene says in the book, “Money, sex, and greed. MSG. I always heard that too much MSG could kill you. Now I know how true that is.”
That pretty much sets the tone for the story. We get a crime kingpin, shady real-estate dealing, corrupt police, a sadistic killer, and double crosses all wrapped in a deep mystery with lots of action. The body count gets high.
It is a good story, but it suffers from first-book blues. IMHO there is too much introspection and the timing is off in places. (Also, another copy edit wouldn't have hurt.)
3.5 stars, but I cannot quite round it up. I will, however, continue with the series.