REQUIEM FOR GERALDINE GERBIL

Two detectives must sift through an eccentric roster of suspects to find the murderer of a noted children’s book author in this mystery novel.

When Daphne “Daffy” O’Hanlon, the author of the children’s book series called The Adventures of Geraldine Gerbil,is shot dead, police detectives Drury Metzinger and Leslie Givens are on the case. Before too long, they find out that Freddie Winslow, O’Hanlon’s daughter, is a prime suspect, as she not only wrote all of O’Hanlon’s books—starting when Winslow was a small child—she also ruined her mother’s relationship with her publisher by refusing to produce any more. But Winslow is hardly the only suspect, and the cops’ investigation proves to be quite dangerous. Still, Willis keep the quips coming, which keeps the narrative moving along steadily. When Givens, for example, is stabbed by a suspect, her co-worker, asks, “you got stitches?”; Givens responds dryly, “No bikini for a while.” At another point, another possible suspect from the deceased’s publishing house complains that she wishes that she could get the author’s advance check back: “Should have gotten insurance. Does GEICO do that?” Such one-liners and offbeat characters are the novel’s strongest elements. However, readers may wish that some key scenes delved more into the detectives’ thought processes; for example, when the medical examiner revises his verdict on the victim’s cause of death, readers only get Metzinger’s and Givens’ physical reactions and dialogue, while in other, less important scenes, characters’ thoughts are spelled out in detail.

A pleasantly comedic but moderately underdeveloped whodunit.