Hard-Boiled Detective Story

Tampa Confidential reminds me of noir detective fiction of the 40's and 50's which is appropriate for the time period of the story. It is especially effective how the story begins, where the time frame of the narrative is not readily apparent. It could be a contemporary story, but there are clues that its from a different era. The fact that Ford is a "veteran of two wars" forces the reader to start questioning when this is occurring. Once he slips on his "well-worn fedora" it becomes clear that this story reaches back into time.

As is the case in most good narrative writing, the attention to detail really transports the reader to a different time and place. For readers who live in present-day Tampa it does a good job of visually painting a picture of the landscape of the city that existed more than forty years ago.

The story is almost a police procedural piece. It gives the reader a glimpse of how cases were investigated in an era before the use of scientific methods of crime scene investigation. Tampa Confidential draws the reader into the old gumshoe method of detection. And like much of noir fiction, it ends with a good deal of ambiguity and loose ends that aren't neatly tied up.