DOUBLE TAKE

A second case for San Diego shamus Madison Kelly finds her suddenly awash in job offers. The one she picks is a doozy.

Pharmaceutical sales rep Travis Moore’s girlfriend, Hillcrest Holler reporter Barrett Anna Brown, disappeared five days ago. The police have limited interest in something that happens all the time, and Travis is willing to advance Madison $5,000 to spend a week looking for her. Within hours, Madison has a lead: half a dozen death certificates Barrett requested copies of. Greg and Isabel Thomas, Jason and Rebecca Brady, and Rex and Tammy Hacks all died in accidents that claimed the lives of both members of each couple. The same person, Crystal Ladessa, is listed as handling the paperwork on all three of their estates, and Joseph L. Viceroy, the lawyer Crystal works for, has set up charitable trusts as secondary legatees for each of the childless couples. Holler editor Cornell Jones says he knew Barrett only professionally even though a telltale photo shows the two of them together in a restaurant in Mexico. Madison, who notices early on that she’s being followed everywhere she goes, clearly thinks she’d be a superhero if she had more upper-body strength. But she’s too busy itemizing dates, addresses, architectural details, and the brand names of her boots and flak jacket to consider why her client might be lying to her over apparently innocent details or, once the case heats up, to return calls and texts from surfer Dave Rich, her maybe boyfriend, and married SDPD Detective Thomas Clark, who’d like to be more than her buddy. The upshot is as predictable as the solution.

The single best thing about this flawed, likable mystery is the sly clue buried in its title.