Teddy Lint is the kindest private investigator on the planet, committed to seeing the best in everyone he meets.
The detective agency he runs with his brother Ralph out of a Los Angeles strip mall has seen a strange case or two before, but never anything like this.
A man claiming to work for the CIA hires the Lints to find a shipping container of radioactive Agent Orange that vanished over fifty years ago. He insists someone is planning on using an army of drones to drench L.A. with the deadly chemicals before the week is out.
The Lint Brothers enter a maze of bizarre suspects, from nefarious ad executives, to anarchistic Boy Scouts, to a toga-clad militia fighting for exclusive rule by women. The propaganda-obsessed society that seems to be running the world is probably worth looking into as well.
The power of empathy collides with the dangers of disinformation as Teddy fights to save the people he loves. Our beloved detective doesn't give up easily, but any Angelenos with an aversion to death by herbicide might want to dust off that umbrella, just in case . . .
Teddy Lint is the kindest private investigator on the planet, committed to seeing the best in everyone he meets.
The detective agency he runs with his brother Ralph out of a Los Angeles strip mall has seen a strange case or two before, but never anything like this.
A man claiming to work for the CIA hires the Lints to find a shipping container of radioactive Agent Orange that vanished over fifty years ago. He insists someone is planning on using an army of drones to drench L.A. with the deadly chemicals before the week is out.
The Lint Brothers enter a maze of bizarre suspects, from nefarious ad executives, to anarchistic Boy Scouts, to a toga-clad militia fighting for exclusive rule by women. The propaganda-obsessed society that seems to be running the world is probably worth looking into as well.
The power of empathy collides with the dangers of disinformation as Teddy fights to save the people he loves. Our beloved detective doesn't give up easily, but any Angelenos with an aversion to death by herbicide might want to dust off that umbrella, just in case . . .
Teddy tries to understand what’s happening and fails.
For one thing, Tom Hanks is on the client couch of the Lint Detective Agency. You wouldn’t think someone as congenial as Hanks would need to employ a P.I., and that if he did, he could do better than one operating out of a strip mall. Yet here he is.
Odd, too, that the coffee pot in the kitchenette of the Lint Detective Agency is empty. The coffee pot in the kitchenette of the Lint Detective Agency is never empty.
Odder still, the door to the office Teddy shares with his brother, Ralph, is closed. Muffled voices inside suggest there’s another client being served, one who’s apparently significant enough that Tom Hanks has been left to twiddle his thumbs on the couch.
Teddy adjusts his eyepatch. He’s just emerged from a small apartment nestled at the rear of his business. It’s an uncommon housing solution, to be sure, but with rent in Los Angeles being what it is, and commutes described in hours not minutes, marrying one’s residential and commercial starts to look pretty smart.
“Mr. Hanks,” Teddy says. “I’m sorry we’ve kept you waiting. How can I help you?”
“This is a non-threatening show of power.”
“Don’t try to get him to say anything else. He won’t say anything else.” Ms. Beauchamp, secretary extraordinaire, waters a rhododendron on her meticulously organized desk. A slight shake in her hand suggests irritation.
Tom Hanks, who up until now has maintained a calm, almost Zen-like forward stare, can’t help a sidelong glance at Ms. Beauchamp and the crimson hyphen of lipstick up her right cheek.
While she performs all assigned tasks in a legendarily precise fashion, Irma Beauchamp, a French-Jamaican librarian-cum-secretary well into her golden years, insists on the daily application of make-up while simultaneously refusing to have any regard for the outcome. “I’m no prize pig to be ogled,” she’d famously declared in her job interview years before, when her eye shadow had been off by at least two inches to the right.
It’s Ms. Beauchamp who’s responsible for the coffee pot being 15/16ths full and gently steaming every morning, to the point where it’s death and taxes, sunrise and sunset; mysteries abound in the wide, weird universe, but cross the Lint Detective Agency coffee pot off the list of things to worry about because it’s been taken care of.
Except today.
Today, something Teddy can’t yet identify has created a seismic anomaly in the workplace.
“Mr. Hanks, can I offer you some tea?” Teddy says.
Hanks, pleasant as can be, repeats his mantra, “This is a non-threatening show of power.”
“I told you he won’t say anything else.” Ms. Beauchamp shoots a furious glance at the coffee pot, just now showing signs of liquid along its glass bottom. “He showed up with the man in your office, the man who drank all the coffee. And when I made a second pot, the man drank that, too. Pot three is brewing now. I’d like to see him drink that, ho yes, I would certainly like to see him try!”
“Who is it?” Teddy asks in a workplace sotto.
Ms. Beauchamp splashes a second cup of water onto the poor rhododendron, flooding the soil. “I don’t know, but a third pot is out of the question. I don’t care what your name is, the human digestive system has its limits.”
Though he’s eager to meet the man who’s flapped the unflappable Ms. Beauchamp, Teddy tries one final time.
“Mr. Hanks, are you sure there isn’t something I can—”
“This is a non-threatening show of power.”
Teddy, with his unwavering optimism, and his brother Ralph, with his pragmatic approach, form the intriguing duo at the Lint Detective Agency. Housed in a converted dry cleaner and along with their secretary extraordinaire, Ms. Beauchamp, they often entertain that which Los Angeles throws at them. The Lint Detective Agency is hired to find a barrel of Agent Orange. However, with only a week to find it and an assembly of suspects that range from the unusual to the outlandish, the Lint brothers will need all their patience and detective powers to solve this case.
For Your Benefit is a detective novel by Patrick Canning. As new as this novel is, Canning's book has the feel of a hardboiled crime drama from the heyday of pulp fiction. Well, maybe not hardboiled. More like scrambled with a side of low cal. toast. Canning's character-driven crime drama has an offbeat plot that makes for a laugh-out-loud reading experience. From main characters to supporting characters to the antagonist, the entirety of Canning's cast is quirk-riddled, making everyone enduring. There is even a cameo from Tom Hanks acting as goofy as ever.
The character driven style that Canning uses is propped up by his ability to write natural and engaging dialogue. The conversations between characters feel smooth and almost normal in the midst of the chaos around them. The lunacy of his characters are brought to life through these dialogues, adding depth to the story. Despite the parade of odd characters, Canning always steers the plot back to the case.
From the cover that looks like it was produced in the 1970s to a crime drama that is as ridiculous as it is fun, Canning's book feels like a pulp detective novel with a modern flair. The quick pacing and brilliantly written characters make this a fun read. Expect to laugh and groan out loud. Despite the reasoning behind Canning writing this novel, reading it would be For Your Benefit.