A PRIVATE INVESTIGATION

by Karl Alexander ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 1980

A familiar and long private investigation--as California's Sara Scott, who turned shamus when her journalist husband was killed by a sniper in a car, finally gets a paying case: she's hired to follow James Reardon, a doctor suspected of infidelity by his wife. But Sara's tailing soon reveals that Reardon's not an adulterer--he's a man with some sort of secret. And then he's hit-and-run murdered, with Sara as witness. So, convinced that this murder is somehow connected to her husband's, Sara sleuths on--tracking down Reardon's secret-sharers (another couple of dead bodies to discover) and focusing in on a suspicious drug-addict halfway house where Reardon did volunteer work. Sara's boyfriend Sam infiltrates the place (winding up half-dead of a heroin overdose); Sara, who's seen the drug-and-sex antics of the halfway house director, is nearly raped-and-knifed, killing in self-defense; and the trail of two hit-men leads to the Mexican Mafia, the state comptroller, and an ugly revelation about Sara's beloved hubby. Alexander (Time After Time) does offer some amusing, Rockford-Files-style gambits along the way; and the characters (especially Sara's little daughter and old-shamus mentor) are quasi-appealing. But the plotting is strictly by the numbers, unconscionably stretched out, and padded with Sara's italicized emotional twitchings. Disappointing.

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION