Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Killing Time In LA 
SERIES: Tom and Stanley #3
AUTHOR: Victor J. Banis
PUBLISHER: DSP Publications
LENGTH: 200 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 8, 2018
BLURB:
No matter how Stanley tries, he and Tom can’t seem to get away from bodies. On vacation in LA, Stanley’s visit with a friend at a popular Mexican restaurant owned by La Paloma, the flamenco dancer, leads to meeting a couple from Mexico. When the woman is found dead, Tom and Stanley work with LAPD Detective Betts— a recovering alcoholic who lost his son to a child murderer— to find the young man. The bodies pile up as Tom, Stanley, and Betts race to solve the puzzle of a Russian agent, drug smuggling, illegal immigrants, and police corruption. Stanley might hate bodies, but Tom can’t resist a mystery. While killing time in LA, will a killer set his sights on Stanley?
REVIEW:
While on holiday in LA, former cops, now private detectives, Stanley and Tom stumble upon a mystery they feel the need to solve. Tom loves solving murders; they’re his kryptonite – Stanley, not so much, but his intuitiveness is invaluable.
Although in LA, there is a Mexican arc to this story. Tom and Stanley work seamlessly together to assist the local detectives – and unsurprisingly they provide many of the breakthroughs. On a personal level, the men are committed to each other, but Stanley can’t stop salivating at the local talent. This book is not the first in the Tom and Stanley series. As such, I can’t help thinking I missed something important about their personalities, revealed elsewhere that would have helped me understand them better, and connect with them more.
I found Killing Time In LA, to be a competent, well thought out story, with splendid scene setting. The arc has its twists and turns and isn’t too complicated. As you see from the tags, the drama is occasionally brutal and has some classic elements. But for me, there was something missing, that stopped me getting emotionally involved with the story and characters. Maybe, a little more could have been made of some scenes. Possibly, to truly appreciate this story one needs to read the series from the beginning. A couple of things that some readers will be pleased about is that one, much of the angst doesn’t last long. Two, the case starts and finishes within the pages, leaving nothing hanging over from one book to the next – except for the continued development of relations between Tom and Stanley.
RATING: 
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