OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM

Thad Hanlon, surfer and certified public accountant, has just opened a private investigation business in the Five Cities area of the California Central Coast. He and his new partner, attorney and martial artist Bri de la Guerra, are both reeling from the deaths of their significant others three years ago—and both are eager to get their agency off the ground by landing an inaugural client. A case arrives just in the nick of time, right outside the Land Cruiser out of which Thad and his 3-year-old son are currently living: Krystle Dudamel, a former exotic dancer from Bakersfield, is looking for her missing 14-year-old son Mobius, a surfing prodigy known around the Pismo Pier as Moby Dude. “The kid was respectable for a 14-year-old but very aggro,” narrates Hanlon. “Always snaking some local’s swell and cutting them off. Being hyper-aggressive in the water is not the best way to win friends and influence people.” Could Mobius’ disappearance be linked to the murder of a local gang member, whose body was recently disinterred from the Oceano Beach sand? Hanlon and Bri will have to find out…that is, if they ever want to secure a second client. Jones’ prose effectively conveys Hanlon’s laid-back attitude, and the plot features a number of entertaining, surfer-specific elements, as when Hanlon finds a message encoded in a pile of boards: “They were stacked helter-skelter, the top side of the boards facing up. No serious surfer would do that. Leave boards in direct sunlight for the wax to melt. Strange. Had to be a cipher. Had to be some kind of message.” Neither Hanlon nor Bri appearto be particularly haunted by their losses, but it may simply be that the book’s lighthearted tone has little space for mourning. Instead, Jones delivers a proper beach read, both in form and content.

Mar 17, 2025 - 07:36

Thad Hanlon, surfer and certified public accountant, has just opened a private investigation business in the Five Cities area of the California Central Coast. He and his new partner, attorney and martial artist Bri de la Guerra, are both reeling from the deaths of their significant others three years ago—and both are eager to get their agency off the ground by landing an inaugural client. A case arrives just in the nick of time, right outside the Land Cruiser out of which Thad and his 3-year-old son are currently living: Krystle Dudamel, a former exotic dancer from Bakersfield, is looking for her missing 14-year-old son Mobius, a surfing prodigy known around the Pismo Pier as Moby Dude. “The kid was respectable for a 14-year-old but very aggro,” narrates Hanlon. “Always snaking some local’s swell and cutting them off. Being hyper-aggressive in the water is not the best way to win friends and influence people.” Could Mobius’ disappearance be linked to the murder of a local gang member, whose body was recently disinterred from the Oceano Beach sand? Hanlon and Bri will have to find out…that is, if they ever want to secure a second client. Jones’ prose effectively conveys Hanlon’s laid-back attitude, and the plot features a number of entertaining, surfer-specific elements, as when Hanlon finds a message encoded in a pile of boards: “They were stacked helter-skelter, the top side of the boards facing up. No serious surfer would do that. Leave boards in direct sunlight for the wax to melt. Strange. Had to be a cipher. Had to be some kind of message.” Neither Hanlon nor Bri appearto be particularly haunted by their losses, but it may simply be that the book’s lighthearted tone has little space for mourning. Instead, Jones delivers a proper beach read, both in form and content.