Thomas J. Keevers What the Hyena Knows

What the Hyena Knows

Thomas J. Keevers

Five Star, Dec 2005, $25.95, 248 pp.

ISBN: 1594144419

He was a Chicago cop who was fired after he was shot by the husband of the woman he was sleeping with. He became a lawyer who was disbarred by the Illinois legal board, when he attacked a judge and an opponent for calling him a liar. When he continued to womanize, his wife finally left him. Mike Duncavan is trying to regain what his pride cost him, starting with his professional life, and he hopes one day his first spouse. He works as a legal investigator taking whatever crumbs lawyers sends his way.

Attorney Stanley Janda, a former cop who met Mike in night school, hires him to find evidence that will exonerate his client, photographer Justin Ambertoe, accused of abducting five year old Reggie Brookin. Mike wonders why a gay white man would be in the ghetto, even to take pictures of abandoned property. As he interviews the neighbors, he realizes that Stanley's client is hiding something, and may be lying beyond the omission, but for some reason believes the man is innocent. When he learns about the African David Akiby, he begins finding loose strings that tie together, including seeing a Hyena in the park to the Mesquite Bend Ranch in Texas, but the main question remains unanswered: Why the kidnapping and probable murder of a child?

If it was not for Mike's uncanny skills to recognize animals, this sleuth tale would be a typical sub-genre tale of a rising superstar falling down to the lowest rung and trying to make it back. In Many ways Mike is a flawed Shakespearean tragic figure, whose flaws lead to his downfall. The who-done-it is fun to follow, though the ties between Chicago, Texas and Africa seem nebulous at best, but his ex explains his abilities so that the link seems plausible. Fans of interesting private investigative tales will want to learn WHAT THE HYENA KNOWS.

Harriet Klausner