After reading two very average books in a row, I was looking forward to trying Fruitcake. I have to say, for pure entertainment, I was not disappointed.

Gabriel Rose lost everything in a moment of rage. Arriving home one night, he walked in on his law partner and wife in bed together with his one-year-old daughter in the room. Gabe did what any man would probably do: he beat the crap out of the guy. For his efforts, he was sent to jail, divorced, bought out of his law practice, and left destitute and scorned by the legal community. While office-sitting for a honeymooning lawyer, Gabe is contacted by Del Pritchard, an old man with a conspiracy theory. Gabe takes Del’s retainer, plans to take a cursory look into the case, and immediately forgets about it. When Del turns up dead, Gabe rethinks things and decides to take a harder look.

Gabe is a guy who makes iffy choices and seems to be followed by bad luck. He’s nowhere close to perfect, but fairly easy to sympathize with. He’s smart and charming, and I never could understand why all the other lawyers took the partner’s side over Gabe’s. After all, he was the one who has betrayed, not vice versa.

Margot Girard, Del’s younger (and more normal) cousin, is the titular heroine. She comes to town to take care of Del’s estate and ends up falling for Gabe and helping him solve the murder case. She like Gabe, is charming and thoroughly likable.

Kaiser doesn’t make the mistake of trying to turn this into romantic suspense. The relationship between Margot and Gabe is an added bonus, but the story doesn’t waver from Gabe’s point of view. All through the book, he is mainly trying to get his life in order, solve the mystery, and stay out of jail, despite the other lawyers and certain policemen who’d like to see him back behind bars. (Why everyone was so anxious that Gabe go back to jail remains a mystery to me.)

There are some great secondary characters in Fruitcake. My favorites are Otis Oxley, Margot’s bodybuilding neighbor, and Cyrus “Pug” O’Connor, Gabe’s mentor. They add lots of character and color to the scenes they are in. I’d like to see this cast of characters serialized into other books – is MIRA listening?

The remainder of characters were somewhat overwhelming. Between the three hit men, the corrupt family, and the characters this group brings along for the ride, this novel is packed with people. They weren’t all as entertaining as Pug and Otis, but Dee Dee, one of the “bad” guys, came close.

Don’t look for anything more than pure entertainment in this book. Fruitcake actually starts off with a Grisham-like feel to it, but Kaiser develops his own voice. The writing is not perfect; each chapter contains sections from the point of view of at least three different characters, and it can be confusing. Also, Kaiser has a quirk of repeating things several times, whether it’s a character’s first and last names even after the reader has been introduced to them, or constantly reminding readers of Gabe’s time in jail. However, these were minor annoyances because they don’t distract from the narrative.

I enjoyed Fruitcake well enough to read until the wee hours. The plot is absorbing enough that if there were any holes in it, I did not notice them. If you’re in the mood for a novel that’s not romantic suspense or soap opera lite, this is it.