MURDER TO THE METAL

Lottery winners who play detective may bear more responsibility for the crime than the solution.

Winning the $550 million from the MondoMegaJackpot last year has been a real life changer for Allie Harper and her partner, Tom Bennington, though not in the way anyone would have expected. Instead of focusing on a lavish lifestyle and the related accoutrements, Allie’s trying to convince Tom to join her in founding the T&A Detective Agency—named for their initials, of course. Their success in staying alive long enough to collect and protect their winnings (Too Lucky To Live, 2017) has convinced Allie that she has what it takes to help when her former colleague Loretta Coates shows up at her door. Loretta’s boyfriend, Lloyd Bunker, disappeared on a courier gig, and Loretta wants Allie to find out what happened, even if it means learning that Lloyd may be dead. So Allie gathers her network, including her bodyguard, Otis, who’s a licensed private investigator; a Cleveland cop who’s relieved not to be working against Allie this time around; Margo, her former landlady and a sassy woman in her own right; and a new ally, television reporter Lisa Cole. Tom helps where he can; though he’s blind, his limitation has given him a greater ability to listen, and he’s the crew’s resident lie detector. When Allie finally learns of Lloyd’s fate, she’s shocked by its connections to her own life, connections that put her, the team, and especially Tom in grave danger as the curse of the MondoMegaJackpot continues apace.

So many quirky characters, intersecting plots, and sudden reveals overfill Hogsett’s second that it can be hard to decide which of her unique threads to follow.