A debut thriller whose predominant tone, as its title suggests, is a profound sadness that no death, not even for an...
A debut thriller that takes its reluctant Boston investigator deep into the heart of Bangkok, then deeper still.
After the cheating husband she’d asked ex-reporter Sebastian Damon to tail punches him out, insurance executive Dolores Moyle offers Sebastian a consolation prize of sorts: $7,500 plus expenses if he can prove that Linda Watts, the Laotian-born BankBoston vice president reported dead of an overdose in a tawdry Bangkok guesthouse, is still among the living. Dolores’ interest is in saving her firm half a million dollars; Sebastian’s interest is murkier, harder to pin down and constantly changing. He makes contact with his father’s old Army friend Sgt. Sam Honeyman, who knows every con artist and bar girl in town, and talks to Doug Brody, the fellow roomer who found Linda’s body, just a day before Brody also checks out. Clearly, there’s something funny about the case, and Sebastian’s exchanges with Col. Nagaphit, the high-ranking police official who came all the way from Thonglor station to investigate, do nothing to dispel his suspicions. There’ll be intrigue aplenty in Bangkok before Sebastian’s discoveries there send him into the villages of Laos, pursuing a goal poles from his original quest. Throughout it all, veteran journalist Cox’s first novel gradually and expertly turns up the heat, doling out the exotic details by careful teaspoons early on before plunging Sebastian into a world far from his comfort zone.
A debut thriller whose predominant tone, as its title suggests, is a profound sadness that no death, not even for an insurance company’s client, is a good death.Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-01231-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Even when she’s in pantyhose, Hannah’s grit and quick thinking once more save the day.
All of Lake Eden is agog when the police chief’s secretary takes a tumble from the penthouse of a condo complex.
Fabulously wealthy Roger Dalworth has pulled out all the stops for the grand reopening of the Albion Hotel, his new luxury condo project. A caterer from Minneapolis! Red Velvet Surprise Cupcakes from The Cookie Jar for dessert! The evening is so grand that The Cookie Jar’s owner, Hannah Swensen (Cinnamon Roll Murder, 2012, etc.), in eye makeup and pantyhose, decides to tour the Albion’s posh penthouse, complete with its outdoor garden. Hannah is luckier than Barbara Donnelly, whose own tour of the penthouse ends in a headfirst plunge to the parking lot. Barbara survives, much addled, leaving amateur sleuth Hannah to decode her ramblings about her brother (Barbara is an only child) and a furry white monster that lurks in her hospital room. Hannah soon has her own worries. She finds Dr. Bev Thorndike, her former rival for local dentist Norman Rhodes’ affections, in her red Maserati at the bottom of Miller’s Pond. Even though Dr. Bev has recently become engaged to Roger, her death puts Hannah very much on Detective Mike Kingston’s radar screen. Can Hannah find the real culprit before Mike ends the discussion of whether he or Norman will be the one to wrestle her to the altar by putting her in the slammer instead?
Even when she’s in pantyhose, Hannah’s grit and quick thinking once more save the day.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-8034-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Her zany cast will have readers wondering whether DiRico’s series debut is set in Belle View or Bellevue.
Murder crashes the party.
Mia Carina would like nothing better than to see her dad, Ravello, a made man in Donny Boldano’s mob, go straight. When she hears he’s won the Belle View Banquet Manor from hard-luck gambler Andre Bouras in a poker game, she rushes back from Palm Beach to help him run the place, hoping it will provide her dad with enough legitimate income to allow him to cut his ties with the underworld. Despite its dated décor and bone-shaking proximity to LaGuardia Airport, the catering hall has panoramic views out its windows that make it a worthy rival to the overpriced event venues in Manhattan—which Mia’s outer-borough friends drive her nuts by calling “the city.” (“Queens is the city” is her perennial retort.) And she proves her borough cred by moving in with her nonna in Astoria. But running a catering hall involves more than dealing with bridezillas like Alice Paluski, who’s determined to make her wedding bigger and better than her twin sister’s, or with momzillas like Barbara Grazio, Alice’s prospective mother-in-law, who’s determined to make the groom’s side of the wedding outshine the bride’s. She has to wrangle an ever changing cast of chefs, sous-chefs, waitstaff, decorators, DJs, and the occasional stripper, who all bring a host of quirks and baggage to the banquet table. She also has to deal with more than one corpse. It takes all of Mia’s considerable ingenuity to keep Ravello’s first legit enterprise from becoming a ticket right back to the slammer.
Her zany cast will have readers wondering whether DiRico’s series debut is set in Belle View or Bellevue.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2534-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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