LENDERCIDE

Murder, robbery, and a long-legged employee shake up a Florida bank’s loan division.

In Madding’s murder mystery, loan processor Colleen Smithwick packs a pistol, wears stilettos, drives a Maserati, and finds married life boring. Alex, her devoted husband of 15 years, seems glued to his recliner. So when Colleen and police detective Gary Black meet-cute when he investigates the murder of one of the bank’s loan officers, she soon sends the handsome, blond, divorced man racy selfies, including one of her dragon-tattooed upper thigh (plus just a hint of a black thong). The stabbing death of loan officer Richard Shiver in the bank’s parking lot hardly bothers Colleen, who tells Gary that she’s on a long list of murder suspects, which includes anyone who ever had to deal with the victim. Within days of the killing, a robbery takes place at the bank, and then another employee is found dead. But work on approving loans basically goes on uninterrupted, and Colleen balances her pull to Gary with an attraction to a female co-worker. Realism doesn’t play a part in a plot that has loan operations go on as if it were business as usual even when the bank suffers a robbery and multiple employee murders within a matter of days. Details and word choices deserve more attention. For example, Colleen has “salt and pepper streaked brown hair” (brown?), and it’s not a quip when someone asks “ ‘What’s the status of my loan package?’ he quipped.” A pet dachshund is introduced early in the book, but later a Chihuahua confusingly appears. Gary is not a particularly woke character; he orders a drink for himself and one for Colleen by saying, “And the lady will have the same.” But this lady, who tells Gary she fantasizes about spankings, is a vamp. And when she’s on the page, it’s eye-popping for readers.

A stunning, pistol-packing hero who deserves a more believable mystery.