Tim Wohlforth, the writer
 
 
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"Like a great twelve-bar blues--the comfort of a familiar form jazzed by a fresh key and an exciting new voice."
--Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of The Persuader and The Enemy
No Time To MournNo Time to Mourn, by Tim Wohlforth, was published in 2003
Wolf meets Susan Henry. She is being stalked by a professional killer she calls Red. Red succeeds in murdering her and then seeks to take out his only witness, Wolf. Wolf, in turn, must discover Red's boss. Wolf's hunt leads him to tangle with a lesbian motorcycle gang and battle a helicopter in the desert. He discovers the truth at an old mission in California's Central Valley.

Here's the opening lines from
No Time to Mourn ...

Big EmmaJim Wolf hears the dolorous braying of the foghorn off the estuary as he makes his way across the promenade toward the shimmering orange glow of Big Emma's. A thick fog has swallowed up Jack London Square. It leaves him no space. Beads of moisture drip down his face. He feels a cloud of white pressing in on his face like a down pillow. He has a client to see. A private eye has to take what he can get. Can't panic. He trudges on towards the bar. He blinks, adjusting his eyes, as he passes through the black wrought-iron gates of the Nineteenth Century building.

Lori polishes the mahogany surface of the bar, her platinum blond ponytail bobbing up and down. She looks up. "She's back there,"Lori gestures with her head toward a shape bent over a drink at the end of the bar. Hardly human. More like a bundle of black clothes someone had left on the barstool. "Someone shot her husband. He died in her arms." Wolf asks, "So what can I do? I'm pretty good but I don't bring back the dead." Lori answers, "Keep her alive. She says the same killer is after her now."

 

 
 
What the Writers Have to Say:
"Like a great twelve-bar blues--the comfort of a familiar form jazzed by a fresh key and an exciting new voice."
--Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of The Persuader and The Enemy

"Tim Wohlforth gives us a tale that surgically examines the societal forces that shape our world while providing the pulse-stopping suspense that is the hallmark of the finest detective novels."
--Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of Masquerade and The Coil

"A dark gem of a crime novel."
--Jeremiah Healy, author of Spiral and The Only Good Lawyer

"Non-stop action leading to a really gripping conclusion!"
--Rhys Bowen, author of Evan's Gate and the Molly Murphy series

"They say noir fiction is a creature of the 1940s, but Tim Wohlforth gives it new life in his chilling No Time To Mourn."
--Roger L. Simon, author and screenwriter of The Big Fix

What the Critics Have to Say:

Midwest Book Review, Shirley Johnson
I love a mystery that has the savor of the old TV shows such as Magnum PI, the kind where the private eye is street smart, smooth and real to life. That's what I found in my read of No Time To Mourn.

No Time To Mourn is a mystery written with a flare from the past mixed with the present. It is a story that shows how greed overshadows the preservation of life and it is a story that brings out inward emotions as we watch Wolf work through his own fears of personal involvements with those who love him. If you want to read a good mystery with a slice of personal struggles with the main character, this one is for you. Very good job.

Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, James Winter
No Time to Mourn is a terrific start to a series. Wolf is a low-key, introspective kind of PI. No flash or long rants about moral codes and missions. He's a loner, and his work, his relationship to Lori, and even his home are merely a function of that. Here's to more of the same.

Thrilling Detective, Dale Stoyer
Tim Wohlforth's first private eye novel, No Time To Mourn, is a good balance between action and investigation. There's even a little time for reflection, as when his protagonist laments the sometimes-sedentary nature of investigative work: "Somehow sitting in front of a computer seemed like just the desk job I thought I could avoid by being a private eye. Yet, I found I was spending more time these days in front of a computer screen than wearing down the gum on my shoes."

But fortunately for action fans, Oakland-based P.I. Jim Wolf doesn't get much time for relaxation in his novel-length debut (after appearing in several published short stories).

Jim Wolf is not a cookie-cutter caricature of a hard-boiled private eye, and comes off as human and fallible. The supporting cast is well-realized and engaging and the action drives the plot without taking it over. An interesting mystery that doesn't fall victim to cutesy twists, but entertains right to the bittersweet end.
 
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